The Dresses of Florestine Kinchen: A Tribute to Helen Hill
May 3 - August 23, McKissick Museum
Compiled by Mimi M.Maddock with contribution from McKissick Museum

Helen Hill

Although she was only 36 years old when she lost her life in January 2007, Columbia native Helen Hill spent a lifetime making films. Sadly, her life was cut short during production of her newest film based on a discovery of hand- sewn dresses made by Florestine Kinchen, a recently deceased seamstress in New Orleans.

Hill attended Brennen Elementary School, Hand Middle School, and Dreher High School. While at Harvard (1988- 92) where she completed her BA degree, she began her film career. She received her masters of fine arts at California Institute of the Arts; afterwhich, she moved to Nova Scotia, Canada, to create films and teach film animation at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and at the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative. At the time her husband, Paul Gailiunas, was attending Dalhousie University Medical School. Hill and her husband helped initiate the Free Food Organization in Halifax in 1996. It later became a part of the Food Not Bombs campaign.

The couple moved to New Orleans December 17, 2000, and settled in the Mid- City district with their pet cat Nola and their pet pig Rosie. Hill continued to teach animation through the New Orleans Video Access Center and the New Orleans Film Collective which she co- founded with other members of the local film community.

On the way to a Mardi Gras parade in 2001, Helen and her husband discovered the neglected legacy of a seamstress. More than 100 hand- sewn dresses were in a trash heap in front of Kinchen's home. Hill salvaged what she could of the dresses disposed of following Kinchen's death. She expressed that the dresses "were quirky and lovely, just my style."

A few months later, Hill began developing the storyline for a film depicting the discovery of the dresses and the story of the dressmaker. Hill and her family, which now included a son Francis Pop Gailiunas, were temporarily displaced and lost most of their possessions due to Hurricane Katrina. They returned to Columbia for one year, then moved back to New Orleans for Hill to continue her art and activism, which was focused on helping local grassroots endeavours at rebuilding the city. Hill was also a visiting artist at the New Orleans Center for the Arts.

Hill was murdered in her home by an unknown intruder January 4, 2007. Her husband was shot three times and survived. Her son was uninjured.

Funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Hill created the story board and several of the scene assemblages of the film about Kinchen before she died. More than a year after her death, her husband completed the film with the same character that Helen envisioned.

McKissick Museum is pleased to offer a premiere viewing of the finished film in conjunction with the exhibition. On display will be a number of the dresses that inspired Helen's final film, along with clips from her earlier films.

Helen Hill's filmography

• Vessel, 1992
• The World Smallest Fair, 1995
• Scratch and Crow, 1995
• Tunnel of Love, 1996
• Your New Pig is Down the Road, 1999
• Mouseholes, 1999

• Madame Winger Makes a Film, 2001
• Bohemian Town, 2004
• Film for Rosie
• Rain Dance
• The Florestine Collection