60th anniversary re-release

In this utterly charming fable that poetically captures the joys and wonders of childhood, seven-year-old Joey (Richie Andrusco) is tricked into believing he killed his brother, and flees to New York’s Coney Island where he experiences a day and night filled with adventures. With a concealed, custom-made 35mm camera, legendary photographer Engel — whose collaborators included future wife Ruth Orkin, herself a photography titan — captured a perfect time capsule of Coney in the waning years of its heyday. Little Fugitive won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, played in nearly 5,000 theatres in the U.S., 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 Morris Engel’s fine movie Little Fugitive. It showed us the way.” – filmmaker François Truffaut

An Artists Public Domain/Cinema Conservancy Release. Preserved by The Museum of Modern Art with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Film Foundation, and The Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Fund.