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New Orleans Film Society

The Florestine Collection

USA 31 min.

Tuesday, October 18, 6:00 p.m.
Contemporary Arts Center
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Thursday, October 20, 5:30 p.m.
Zeitgeist
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Director, Writer, Cinematographer
Helen Hill
Director, Writer, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor
Paul Guilliunas
Cinematographers
Geoff McFetridge, Mar Elepano

Synopsis

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 elderly 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.