From: MadCat Women's Film Festival (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Sep 19 2007 - 08:07:21 PDT
11th Annual MadCat Women's International Film Festival presents
A Tribute to Helen Hill
Wed Sept 19 El Rio 8:30 pm Free BBQ 6:30 pm Rain or Shine
An evening of handcrafted 16mm films by the late, the great, Helen Hill
Do-it-yourself and make it fun. Those were the watchwords of experimental
film artist Helen Hill. A South Carolina native and graduate of both Harvard
and CalArts, Hill had most recently been living in New Orleans with her
husband Dr. Paul Gailiunas and their young son Francis Pop. After Hurricane
Katrina destroyed their home in Mid-City, the family moved to Faubourg
Marigny to start again, when, on January 4, 2007, Helen was shot and killed
by an intruder. She was 36 years old. Known for her warm and funny
depictions of the world around her, she was generous with her knowledge,
sharing what she learned about handcrafted filmmaking with students and
fellow filmmakers in the sourcebook, Recipes for Disaster: a handcrafted
film cookbooklet. A meticulous artist, she was never precious about the
work, once saying, ³Itıs fun to handle film as a celluloid canvas rather
than as a fragile carrier of images only to be handled by lab technicians.
You can experiment and create the most beautiful images ever.² MadCat is
proud to pay tribute to this special artist and her work, with films
restored by the Harvard Film Archive, many of which were damaged by
Hurricane Katrina. Helen was working on The Florestine Collection, inspired
by a collection of 100 hand-sewn dresses she found in a garbage pile in New
Orleans, when she died. The film, like her life, remains unfinished.
Copies of the Cookbooklet are available for sale during the Festival. All
proceeds benefit the Francis Pop Educational Fund.
Rain Dance (1990): Inspired by a novel by Elijah Aron and featuring an
accompanying song written by Elijah and Helenıs husband Paul.
Vessel (1992): Silhouette puppets reminiscent of Helenıs favorite filmmaker
Lotte Reiniger depict a poem Helen wrote, which was published in 1991 by
Harvardıs The Rag.
The Worldıs Smallest Fair (1995): A cotton candy machine and 12 cans of
Flossine become an artistic medium.
Scratch and Crow (1995): Cats hatch eggs; watermelons fall from the sky;
chickens become angels and fly out of tombstones. Helenıs homage to her farm
animal friends.
Tunnel of Love (1996): Featuring the photo-booth images that Helen
collected, this film captures the carnival atmosphere of the South Carolina
State Fair.
Your New Pig Is Down the Road (1999): Hand-processed at Phil Hoffmanıs Film
Farm in Ontario, and introducing baby pig Daisy with her little sister.
Film for Rosie (2000): Pet pig Rosieıs pigeology with all her relatives.
Mouseholes (1999): Helen memorializes her beloved grandfather, Pop, with a
tea party in heaven. Helenıs own funeral was modeled after Popıs, and she
was buried next to him.
Madame Winger Makes a Film: A Survival Guide for the 21st Century (2001):
Film is more important than the technology used, Helen believed, and Madame
Winger describes inexpensive ways to create one, including hand-processing
and drawing directly onto the emulsion.
Bohemian Town (2004): An illustration of Paulıs song ³Bohemian Town²
expresses the coupleıs love of the North End of Halifax, where they lived
before moving to New Orleans. Paulıs Canadian band Piggy performs the song.
Cleveland Street Gap (2006): Made with Courtney Egan. Following Hurricane
Katrina, Helen spent months cleaning her flood-damaged films. Egan used some
of the pre-hurricane home movies that Helen cleaned, and added video footage
of the same Mid-City neighborhood after the flood.
Co-presented by kino21
MadCat Womenıs International Film Festival
639 Steiner Street, Unit C
San Francisco, CA 94117 US
P. 415 436-9523
F. 415 934-0642
E. email suppressed
W. www.madcatfilmfestival.org
MadCat Womenıs International Film Festival
Screening the best films by women directors from around the world
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.