The Florestine Collection

Synopsis

Helen Hill discovered over 100 handmade dresses in a trash pile on Mardi Gras Day in New Orleans. She intended to create a film about the dressmaker, an African-American seamstress who had recently died. Much of Hill's footage and the dresses were damaged by Hurricane Katrina while she was still working on the project. After Hill's murder in 2007, her husband Paul Gailiunas completed the film, incorporating her original animation alongside flood-damaged and restored home movies.