Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

First American indie film to open Orkin/Engel exhibit at Mad Rose Gallery

First American indie film to open Orkin/Engel exhibit at Mad Rose Gallery
Poster for the theatrical run of the 1953 American film Little Fugitive/Joseph Burnstyn Inc.

On Saturday, Nov. 18, at 3:30 p.m. at The Moviehouse, “Little Fugitive” will be featured in a free showing as an introduction to the work of Ruth Orkin and Morris Engel at the nearby Mad Rose Gallery.

The 1953 Silver Lion award-winning short film follows the exploits of a 7-year-old boy who runs away after he is cruelly pranked into believing he has murdered his brother. In a way almost unthinkable today, he ranges far and wide in Coney Island’s amusement park, captured in evocative black-and-white cinematography of a New York that no longer exists.

As noted in the gallery’s press release: “Also screened will be “Ruth Orkin: Frames of Life,” a documentary directed by their daughter Mary Engel that offers an intimate look at Orkin’s life, her creative process, and the enduring impact of her work. Mary will be present for a Q&A after both films.”

A reception at Mad Rose Gallery, 5916 North Elm Ave. (Route 22) at the corner of Main Street, will follow the screenings. The iconic married couple, who began as collaborators, were active in the period from the late 1930s through the 1980s. They are recognized as having broken new ground in both moving pictures and still photography. 

One of Orkin’s best-known images, “American Girl in Italy,” is emblematic of her gift for capturing a moment in time, often with a touch of humor as well as an eye for detail, in street scenes as well as portraits.

Her husband, Engel, likewise an accomplished photographer from an early age, served in the Navy in World War II under Edward Steichen, and was an influential figure in independent filmmaking. With a friend, he had designed the first handheld 35mm camera based on the bulkier, heavier ones that had been used by the military in World War II.

The exhibit extends until Sunday, Dec. 31. The gallery is open noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. To assure seating for the films, see the gallery’s website for tickets.

Deborah Maier

Latest News

Millerton wine shop owner organizes charity wine tasting for local child

Millerton wine shop owner organizes charity wine tasting for local child

Millerton Wine & Spirits owner Chris Jeans has organized a charity wine tasting to benefit the family of Crew Slater, a Millerton native with congenital kidney disease. The wine tasting is set for Thursday, Oct. 29, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Pasture Kitchen on Route 44 just east of the Village of Millerton.

Illustration provided

MILLERTON — Two local business owners have joined forces to put on a charity wine tasting benefitting Millerton's Slater family.

Crew Slater, a 5-year-old Millerton native, needs a kidney transplant to survive congenital kidney disease. Millerton Wine & Spirits owner Chris Jeans and Pasture Kitchen founder Austin Cornell have organized a charity wine tasting at Pasture Kitchen on Route 44 next Thursday, Oct. 29, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Keep ReadingShow less
events

The Millerton News - October 22, 2026

The Millerton News - October 22, 2026

Download directly

Cornwall Historical Society celebrates Connecticut’s Black patriots

Cornwall Historical Society celebrates Connecticut’s Black patriots

On Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Cornwall Historical Society, author and genealogist John Mills will breathe new life into the stories of some of Connecticut’s more underappreciated patriots. The reason these heroes were forgotten? They were Black.

At a time when white colonists were fighting for their own liberty and political independence, many Black men who fought alongside them remained enslaved. Some risked their lives only to return to bondage. Though enslaved people were promised freedom from both sides of the Revolutionary War in exchange for their service, Great Britain, too, was still deeply dependent on slavery. For Black people in America, the war presented both extraordinary risks and uncertain paths to the freedom that white colonists were demanding for themselves.

Keep ReadingShow less
education
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

A sanctuary for second chances

A sanctuary for second chances

Stephanie Saetta runs Charlie Chicken Bones, a sanctuary in Salisbury.

Madi Long
You only get one or two of these soul connection dogs, so I do this in his honor.
— Stephanie Saetta

Stephanie Saetta has spent much of her life caring for others. A physician at White Plains Hospital, she has another calling at home in Salisbury — one that has four legs and a wagging tail. She runs Charlie Chicken Bone Sanctuary, a nonprofit dog rescue that brings dogs from overcrowded pounds and the streets of Texas to foster homes in northwestern Connecticut, where they can begin again.

The sanctuary is named for Charlie, the dog who taught her how special a bond between a person and rescue animal can be.

Keep ReadingShow less
our community

Big ideas come to Lenox for inaugural field festival

Big ideas come to Lenox for inaugural field festival

Hunter Runnette, founder and board chair of field, has spent years fostering arts and cultural programming in the Berkshires.

Provided

What do joy, gardening, artificial intelligence, the American experiment and the creative process have in common? Quite a lot, as it turns out, at least when some of the world’s most compelling thinkers get together to talk about them.

From Friday, Oct. 23, through Sunday, Oct. 25, Lenox, Massachusetts, will host the inaugural field festival, a three-day gathering of writers, artists, scholars and cultural figures at Shakespeare & Company. Billed as a festival of ideas, entertainment, learning and discovery, field brings together an impressive roster of voices to explore everything from the deeply personal to the profoundly political.

Keep ReadingShow less
community

The Pink House AM is serving up community

The Pink House AM is serving up community

Mare Rubin and Maggie Levine of the Pink House AM.

Madi Long

It all started with a yoga class. Mare Rubin was working on her second act after leaving the Upper West Side, where she’d raised a family and worked in corporate marketing. Newly empty nesters, she and her husband decided to move to the wilds of northwestern Connecticut, where they had spent 15 years as weekenders, to see what life in the woods had in store for them.

Rubin started teaching yoga classes at the Union in West Cornwall, a space designated by the town of Cornwall as a community hub with couches, Wi-Fi, occasional events and a growing yoga class schedule. She was adjusting well but missed one important thing about city life: a casual coffee shop.

Keep ReadingShow less
business
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.