In Memoriam: The Films of HELEN HILL September 19, 2007
San Francisco, California 94110
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 when she was shot and killed by an intruder earlier this year. She was 36. Known for her warm and funny depictions of the world around her, she was generous with her knowledge, sharing what she learned about hand-crafted filmmaking with students and fellow filmmakers. A meticulous artist, she was never precious about the work, always more concerned with the story than the tools. She once said, “It’s 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.” 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 Katrina.
Added by ryanjunell on September 10, 2007
Comments
RevelOcean
What a wonderful event. I'm not sure I can make it up to SF though (no car makes trekking to city literally a trek).
What Ryanjunell writes about Helen rings very true - most have known the artist. I never had the pleasure, but through her dear friends and the sphere of love that rippled from her in New Orleans I felt I touched on a little bit of Helen's essence. (I spent 10 weeks living in Helen's 'hood this spring.) She is missed -- and remembered in many hearts, stories and film.