Austin Cinematheque: Morris Engel's LITTLE FUGITIVE

The AUSTIN CINEMATHEQUE presents a rare and exclusive 35mm screening of the film widely considered to be the cornerstone of the independent and cinéma vérité movements at home and abroad, Morris Engel's indie-film landmark, LITTLE FUGITIVE, on Monday, Oct. 13th at 7.30 p.m. @ the Texas Union Theatre.

An invaluable artifact of the 1950s and one of the first American films to combine fiction with documentary film techniques, LITTLE FUGITIVE (co-directed by Ray Ashley and Ruth Orkin) takes off from the slimmest of stories:  Tricked into thinking he's killed his older brother, a seven-year-old boy goes on the lam, spending the better part of two days and one night wandering the beaches and boardwalks of Coney Island as his (very much alive) brother struggles to find him before their mother returns home.  LITTLE FUGITIVE shines as a beautifully shot document of a long-lost Brooklyn--the drama resides in the grainy black-and-white cinematography, with its careful attention to the changes in light brought on by the inexorably advancing sun.

Both Truffaut and Cassavetes were fans of the film, and its influence is obvious--moments of blissed-out carnival-ride fun find echoes in THE 400 BLOWS, and the pervasive loose framing, found angles, and jumpy editing suggest SHADOWS.  Filled with period ambience and the mythic imagery of cowboys and horses, comics and baseball, it's a key proto-vérité slice of urban Americana. 

Hailed by critics as a groundbreaking cinematic feat, LITTLE FUGITIVE won the Silver Lion award at the Venice Film Festival and is now recognized as a classic of American independent film.

"Our New Wave would never have come into being if it hadn't been for the young Morris Engel ... with his fine LITTLE FUGITIVE."

-- Francois Truffaut

Free screening.  One-night-only.  Print courtesy of Mary Engel and Kino International.