three hours, fifteen minutes before the hurricane struck
35mm (1.37), 5 minutes, silent, 2006
made with the support of lift & the new directions in cinema series 2006
(winner – The Images Festival Steamwhistle Homebrew Award – 2007)

Inspired by the diorama-like boxes of Joseph Cornell, and with text taken from victims of hurricane Katrina, three hours, fifteen minutes before the hurricane struck imagines moments just before a violent weather storm.

In the commissioned work Three Hours, Fifteen Minutes Before the Hurricane (2006), Battle again explores psychological spaces, this time locating her story in a contemporary real-world disaster: the storm that hit New Orleans in 2005, commonly known as Hurricane Katrina. Battle’s narrative explores the advent of the storm from the point of view of the plant and animal worlds. Finely outlined Victorianesque drawings collaged onto the surface of the black film stock seemingly float on the darkened space, intercut with titles that narrate the storm’s impending approach. [Vicky Chainey Gagnon – excerpt from "Behind These Walls: Contemporary Canadian Experimental Short Films"]