Despite my rough attitude and general snarkiness, I have a huge soft spot in my heart for kids. For this reason, I nearly fell apart a few minutes into this short film about Caine’s Arcade.
Caine Monroy is a nine-year-old boy living in Los Angeles who constructed his own makeshift arcade in his father’s auto parts store during the summer. Using empty cardboard boxes and various bits of scrap, he was able to build working versions of a claw game, a free throw basketball machine, and more. When you score points, Caine crawls behind the boxes and feeds tickets through a little slit, then you’re able to use these tickets to grab toys from the prize wall, all from his personal collection. The level of ingenuity exhibited by this kid is beyond unreal.
Unfortunately, Caine’s Arcade never got much business, not until his very first customer, Nirvan Mullick, decided to plan a big surprise for Caine. Nirvan arranged a giant flash mob to visit the arcade one day in October and surprise the young entrepreneur, then the entire effort was turned into a mini documentary. The film has been screened in various locations over the past few months, but it’s only been uploaded online a couple days ago. Believe me, this 11-minute video is worth your time.
Know what’s also worth your time? Donating to Caine’s college fund. Already, over $75,000 has been raised! This is a much better cause than yet another indie game on Kickstarter, wouldn’t you say?
