New York Stories: The Films of Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin
During the interregnum between postwar Italian Neorealism and the late 1950s emergence of the French New Wave, two acclaimed New York-based photographers employed a simple, unobtrusive cinematic process to tell the story of a young boy who spends an eventful day at Coney Island The result, Little Fugitive, would have a monumental impact on directors such as John Cassavetes, Martin Scorsese and François Truffaut, who credited Engel's independent production for laying the groundwork for the French New Wave. Like Engel and Orkin's photography, the films focus on ordinary people whose lives seem to unfold effortlessly yet reveal deep truths about the human condition. As part of this tribute to Orkin and Engel, their daughter Mary will present a special screening of her parents' first feature, along with her own rarely screened documentary portrait of her mother.