The Florestine Collection
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.