sf commons San Francisco's public access television station, operated by BAVC

"The Joy of Life" is an unconventional appreciation of the streets and stories of San Francisco, combining stunning landscape cinematography with a lyrical, well-crafted voiceover to offer a poetic reflection on the City By the Bay. Grappling with gender identity issues and the occasional episode of depression, the film's lone protagonist (the voice of Harriet "Harry" Dodge, "By Hook or By Crook," "Cecil B. Demented") pinballs from sexual conquest to neurotic despair, manic romance to pathetic solitude. The voiceover balances melancholy angst and wry humor in its Casanova account of various urban, romantic, and sexual adventures - from the frisson of flirting to the heartache of rejection.

This narrative of self-discovery resonates with her discovery of the city and leads into an in-depth documentary reflection on the history of suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge (after a capsule production history of Frank Capra's 1941 melodrama, "Meet John Doe"). This section explores the original bridge design, once described as "suicide-proof," and the decades-long debate over construction of a suicide barrier on this, the number one suicide landmark in the world.