SAN FRANCISCO -- The film project was proposed as a "monuments documentary" intended to "capture the grandeur" of the Golden Gate Bridge.

But after a year, filmmaker Eric Steel ended up with footage of 19 deaths and several attempts by people who wanted to end their lives by jumping off what is regarded as the world's No. 1 suicide landmark.

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Bridge officials who approved the filming are now furious at Steel, saying he lied about his project. They are looking for ways to see the footage and possibly prevent him from showing it.

"It's unprofessional to have misrepresented a project," said Mary Currie, spokeswoman for the agency that administers and maintains the famous bridge.

She said if Steel lied about his project, he might also have lied about what he filmed.

"It's an invasion of privacy. It's grim. It's a tragic thing," she said. "But if he wants to show someone jumping off the bridge, he's entitled to do that."

Reached Wednesday by email, Steel refused to comment, citing ongoing "discussions with the bridge district authority."

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which manages the piece of property where Steel set up a digital movie camera, issued him a $65 permit in December 2003, spokesman Rich Weideman said.

Quoting Steel's application, Weideman said the filmmaker wrote that his video was intended "to capture the powerful, spectacular intersection of monument and nature that takes place every day at the Golden Gate Bridge. ... It will be the first in a series. Future projects will focus on the arch in St. Louis and the Statue of Liberty in New York."

Weideman said it's possible Steel began filming the project he proposed, then caught a suicide on tape and changed his plan.

"We kind of want to think of the good in the person rather than the grim background that's coming out of this," he said.

In light of the controversy, the recreation area is re-evaluating its permit policy, he said.

The Golden Gate Bridge has served for decades as platform for suicide jumpers. An estimated 1,200 people have committed suicide there since it opened in May 1937.

Steel revealed the true nature of his project after he completed filming and his permit expired on Dec. 31, Currie said.

"He's now come to our agency and asked to film our staff ... do interviews with our people," Currie said.

Steel sent her an email after she asked for a written proposal.

"I believe the film will allow us to see into the most impenetrable corners of the human mind and challenge us to think and talk about suicide in profoundly different ways. It is a movie about the human spirit in crisis. It is a movie about people," Steel wrote.

Steel said he filmed nearly two dozen suicides and "a great many of the unrealized attempts."

He also said he recorded nearly 100 hours of interviews with families and friends of the jumpers, witnesses who were walking, biking or driving across the bridge or surfing or boating beneath it, psychiatrists and "several of the attempters themselves."

He said his intention is to make "an independent, feature-length film that I can show at a major film festival. Beyond that, I have no distribution plans -- only hopes."

Currie said the bridge district is evaluating Steel's request to interview employees.