Helen Hill

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.

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.

Inspired by a poem.

GOOD LUCK FILM FOR TRAVEL. Hand processed at Phil Hoffman's Film Farm in Ontario.

Helen Hill remembers her grandfather just before his death (in part) by a metaphor involving him as a rapidly diminishing mouse.

A tribute to Halifax.

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.

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.

Inspired by a poem.

GOOD LUCK FILM FOR TRAVEL. Hand processed at Phil Hoffman's Film Farm in Ontario.

Helen Hill remembers her grandfather just before his death (in part) by a metaphor involving him as a rapidly diminishing mouse.

A tribute to Halifax.

Scratch and Crow is a student film by Helen Hill made at the California Institute of the Arts. It is filled with vivid color and a light sense of humor. It is also a poetic and spiritual homage to animals and the human soul

"Filmed in 16mm and hand processed in a week at Phil Hoffman's Film Farm in Canada, this film was a treasure map to lead my husband to his gift, a little pet pig." ⁠— Helen Hill

A whimsical lesson in love from Helen Hill.

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.

A visual genealogy for Helen's potbellied pig Rosabella Bridle King. Hand processed black and white live action and drawing on film (2000). Made at Phil Hoffman's Film Farm.

A man visits the world's smallest fair, where he learns a valuable lesson about life and poison cotton candy.

Nola was born in New Orleans and lived most of her life in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She finally returned to her hometown in 2001. Filmed in 16 mm.

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.