Caine's Arcade
| Caine's Arcade | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Nirvan Mullick |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
11 minutes |
| Country | United States |
Caine's Arcade is an 11-minute short documentary film by Nirvan Mullick released on April 9, 2012 that featured a cardboard arcade created by then 9-year-old Caine Monroy out of boxes and everyday objects. The boy ran his arcade from his father's used-auto parts store in East Los Angeles during mid-2011. Mullick was inspired to make the documentary after unexpectedly coming across the arcade while getting a door-handle for his car. Mullick became Caine's first customer, purchasing a $2 Fun Pass, and decided to make a film about Caine's Arcade after witnessing the level of commitment, work, and thought Caine had put into the arcade. After learning he had been Caine's first and only customer, Mullick arranged for a surprise flash mob of customers using social media to come play Caine's Arcade, which was included as part of the film.
The film, on its release to Vimeo, soon became a viral video. Numerous people donated money towards a college fund Mullick established for Caine. Subsequently, schools around the world have recreated similar cardboard arcades, and the positive response inspired Mullick and team to start the Imagination Foundation, a non-profit aimed at fostering creativity and entrepreneurship in more children across the world.
Before 2011, Caine had spent weekends with his father George Monroy at the store, during which he had tried selling goods, including yard signs for supporting sports teams and snacks and drinks from vending machines. He found little success; Monroy's store was in an industrial area of East Los Angeles with little foot traffic, and his store was more a physical warehouse for sales made over the Internet. In summer 2011, Caine found many of the discarded boxes from the store and asked for his father's permission to create the arcade in the front, which George supported. Caine built and designed all the games himself, creating a ticket and prize redemption system, originally using some of his old toys such as Hot Wheels cars and then into items bought at dollar stores as prizes. Caine would operate the arcade "machines", retrieving balls and dispensing tickets to the player. During a family vacation to Palm Springs, Caine had asked for a t-shirt, with "Caine's Arcade" on one side and "Staff" on the other to be made for him, despite not knowing what "staff" meant at the time but knowing that he had seen that word used in other places.
...
Wikipedia