UPTOWN — Chicago Filmmakers and the Buttercup Park Advisory Council are partnering Thursday in Uptown to screen the animated films of Helen Hill, whose acclaimed career was cut short in 2007 when an armed intruder entered her New Orleans home and fatally shot her.
Hill, also a social activist and educator, "created a charming and vibrant body of work before her untimely death at age 36," according to the website for Chicago Filmmakers, an Andersonville-based media arts organization.
At 8 p.m. Thursday, the organization plans to screen a 53-minute slate of 10 Hill shorts at Buttercup Park in Uptown, 4901 N. Sheridan Road.
Hill's films incorporate an array of experimental techniques, including silhouette puppets, three-dimensional stop motion, drawing-on-film and a host of hand-crafted film methods she shared with the world not only through film but via her 2001 do-it-yourself book, "Recipes for Disaster: a handcrafted Film Cookbooklet."
Chicago Filmmakers lauds Hill "as an inspiration to many people in the independent film world, who are drawn to her DIY approach to filmmaking, her passion for grassroots arts creation, and her strong beliefs in community and activism and how both can benefit from the arts."
The focus of the films being screened Thursday range from "a beloved pet pig," to family, courtship, community, filmmaking and more, according to Chicago Filmmakers.
Here's a list of Helen Hill films being screened Thursday:
- "Raindance" (1990)
- "Vessel" (1992)
- "World's Smallest Fair" (1995)
- "Scratch and Crow" (1995)
- "Tunnel of Love" (1996)
- "Your New Pig is Down the Road" (1999)
- "Film for Rosie" (2000)
- "Mouseholes" (1999)
- "Madame Winger Makes a Film: A Survival Guide to the 21st Century" (2001)
- "Bohemian Town" (2001)
The event is free to attend.
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