Expired May 10, 2021 2:59 AM
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Curated by Becka Barker


Experimental animator Helen Hill was known for the bright hand-crafted aesthetic she brought to so much of her work and life. Her films blend an exuberance for life and care for others with personal stories and themes of mortality. This program embraces the whimsy, the sadness, the fun, and the contemplation in Hill’s films as intertwining threads that encourage us to cushion our pain with love, and celebrate the brevity of our time on earth by demonstrating love and care to one another and our communities. Join us in celebrating and remembering an icon of our local film and animation community!


This program is co-presented as part of Mayworks.

Experimental Animator Helen Hill found more than 100 handmade dresses in a trash pile on one Mardi Gras Day in New Orleans. She set out to make a film about the dressmaker, an African-American seamstress who had recently passed away. The dresses and much of the film footage were later flood-damaged by Hurricane Katrina while Helen was still working on the film. Helen was murdered in a home invasion in New Orleans in 2007. Her husband Paul Gailiunas has completed the film, which includes Helen's original silhouette, cut-out, and puppet animation, as well as flood-damaged and restored home movies.

  • Year
    2011
  • Runtime
    31 minutes
  • Language
    English
  • Country
    United States
  • Filmmaker
    Paul Gailiunas, Helen Hill
  • Sound Design
    Fausto Caceres