helen hill

Helen, Paul, and Francis Pop getting ready for the big clean-up
An old filmmaker friend of mine named Helen Hill was killed last week in New Orleans. Someone came into their home at 5:30 in the morning and shot her and her husband Paul. Paul was hurt, but is going to be okay and should be released from the hospital soon. Their 2-year-old son, Francis Pop, was unhurt. When the police arrived they found him in the arms of his unconscious father.
Stuff like this is just so terribly wrong. Any situation like this is wrong, but Helen and Paul deserved so much better. They were an amazing, beautiful couple; so happy and generous that when they were together you’d swear you could see them glowing. I used to joke that Helen was so sweet that when you first met her you might think she was going to try to sell you something. But it wouldn’t take long to realize that she was just a wonderful, beautiful human being who had a profound sense of compassion and generosity. Helen was also an incredible filmmaker and highly regarded in the experimental film community. She made wonderful, quirky animations, often manipulating the film surface by hand with various techniques that resulted in stunningly beautiful abstract images. She was so good at hand-made, direct to film animation that she taught workshops all across the country, and even released the heralded ‘Recipes For Disaster’ booklet that has served as the quintessential direct-animation resource since it was published. Their home was flooded after Hurricane Katrina, and a crazy mold grew on many of her films. I remember her joking that some of the mold created patterns on the film that were so interesting that she might need to add a chapter in her book about them. Helen never seemed too interested in her own success, but instead viewed filmmaking as a folk-art and put her emphasis into building community. I imagine that her vision of success would be a world of people living together in peace, sitting around a giant table making animated films.
I can’t help but to think how awful of a nightmare this must be for Paul. Paul too is an incredibly compassionate man. He is a doctor and has dedicated his career to helping the poor and people in need. He probably could have gotten a high-paying job in a big hospital, but instead put his energy towards helping those who can’t afford healthcare. I can’t imagine experiencing anything worse than what he is going through. And it’s not fair that Francis Pop will never see his mom again. I am quite sure that Helen must have been one of the best moms in the world. That little boy was robbed of so much. He will hear many times over how wonderful and special his mom was, and I think he will know how much she loved him. But he will have to go through the rest of his life without her, piecing together her image with stories and photographs and his distant memories of the sound of her voice and what it felt like to be in her arms. No two year old should ever be hit with that burden.
I’d stay with them when I was traveling in town; once back in 2002 when I was on tour, and again a few years later when I was down there shooting my documentary American Nutria. They were a couple that was fun to be around; they had almost developed their own language and would often finish each other’s sentences as if their brains were working in tandem and constantly bouncing ideas off each other. They were a couple that was making the world a better place.

Here is some super8 footage of Helen and her pet pig Rosie, who she had taught to sit and turn around (a pig’s version of rolling over). Morgan shot this while we were staying at their house in March of 2003. When I sent Helen a copy of this footage she said that it might just be her favorite movie of all time since Rosie and Super 8 film were two of her most favorite things.
You just don’t know what to do in situations like this. People like Helen and Paul give you faith in the humanity, and then events like this make you feel like it’s all hopeless. It reminds you how delicate everything is, and how priceless every second is. You can’t take anything for granted.
Paul and Francis Pop, I am so very sorry for your loss.
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