A Bridge to Life tells the story of the Bridge Ministry – a program founded by William Washington. As a younger man he did time in a county jail and thought deeply about why he got addicted to drugs. Since then, he claims to have helped thousands of people get and stay sober.
“We’re going to start talking about you. We’re going to empower you to deal with you, and empower you to deal with addiction," the preacher tells his flock. "You understand what I’m saying? We’re going to start working on that man and looking at his life and start seeing what the truth is about him, and not the lie that he’s been living.”
He traced his own problems to his parents.
“My father had a drinking problem, and my mother also. He was a good provider, a hard worker, but the drinking was very intense. One night he came home intoxicated, and me and my baby sister were having a disagreement about something that belonged to me, and I didn’t want her to be playing with, and my father told me to give it back to her, and the first time in my life I said to my father: No! And he pulled out his gun and shot me. I just couldn’t cope with the reality, at the age of 14, that the father that I loved, the father that I respected, did that, so I ran away from home.”
As a kid on the streets, Washington’s life was chaotic. The Bridge insists its clients stay organized and follow a schedule. Charlie Towler is the ministry’s director of employee operations.
“Most people that get trapped into addiction come out of extreme dysfunction + so what we try to do is begin rebuilding their lives with structure first. There’s a firm structure here. It’s not negotiable.”
They work on building relationships and anger management, learn various trades and skills needed in the garden.
“As those cabbages get big they’re right up on each other," Washington explains to a group of trainees. "If they’re too close to each other they’re not going to grow!”
He says the setting – more than 17 acres of fields and woods – is therapeutic.
“Especially when they come from the city and they see this huge black bear running around the property, it’s a whole different mindset. It’s kind of helpful, because at nighttime don’t have to worry about them leaving the property.”
“I got put in a room by myself, and coming from an environment where all I heard was loud noise and profanity and no control and an environment where they treated you like an animal, and I’d come to a place of peace. It was just the quietness of being able to hear the outside world, the birds and the night sky, the wind, God’s creation," says one client. "It was very peaceful, and I was like – Man, if someone is truly wanting to change or have a fresh start as I say, this is where my fresh start begins! This is the place."
The film’s associate producer, Mariah Botkin, hopes those who see this documentary will also be changed.
“I think the Bridge Ministry demonstrates the universal need for love and support, connection, patience, and I think people are just going to leave wanting to hug the person next to them," she says.
A Bridge to Life was produced by Charlottesville filmmaker Chris Farina. It will premiere at the Paramount Theater on Thursday night at 7.
