Helen Hill
1970 - 2007In the pre-dawn hours of January 4, 2007, Hill was murdered by a random intruder in her New Orleans home. Her death (which was one of six murders in New Orleans that day), coupled with the murder a week before of well-known New Orleans musician Dinerral Shavers, sparked widespread civic outrage in New Orleans, and inspired thousands to march against the rampant and continuing post-Katrina violence in New Orleans. This "March Against Violence on City Hall" drew significant press coverage throughout the United States and the rest of the world.
(from wikipedia)
The Florestine Collection
Helen Hill, Paul Gailiunas
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.
The Florestine Collection
Madame Winger Makes a Film: A Survival Guide for the 21st Century
Helen Hill
Meredith Pogue
Madame Winger wants you to make a film about something you love. She shows you her favorite low budget filmmaking techniques, from cameraless animation to processing your own film in a bathtub. Filmed in 16 mm.
Madame Winger Makes a Film: A Survival Guide for the 21st Century
Cleveland Street Gap
Helen Hill, Courtney Egan
Mid-City, New Orleans - the bottom of the bowl. A filmmaker restores what she can of her soggy home movies, which sat in floodwater for three weeks. Another filmmaker shoots the same compositions in the same neighborhood, now abandoned, 10 months after the flood. Edited together they provide a testament to the slow nature of New Orleans’s recovery and its missing populace.
Cleveland Street Gap
Rain Dance
Helen Hill
Rain Dance is a four-minute animation produced by Hill while an undergraduate student at Harvard University from 1988-1992; the exact date of the production is currently unidentified. Although little known, the film is representative of both Hill’s do-it yourself approach – employing character cutouts, strong, yet playful colors, and a narrative and technical simplicity rich with charm – and her jovial demeanor and inquisitive approach to life. The film is dedicated to Elijah Aron, Hill’s boyfriend throughout college. Aron remained close friends with Helen and her husband Paul Gailiunas, and was the godfather of their son Francis.
Rain Dance