Caine's Arcade

This is something I literally just watched, thanks to my friend Peter Brown, proprietor of the wildly popular Kludge Spot blog (doing it's part to "keep the internet weird"), who posted it on Facebook.

Caine is a 9-year old boy who's father George own's an East LA auto parts store.  Caine is a cute kid with an ever present smile that betrays a set of delightfully crooked teeth.  He looks like the kind of kid you'd want your kid to be friends with.  During the summer Caine would go with George to work and to kill time started constructing his own arcade out of cardboard boxes and other odds and ends found around the shop.  The games are surprisingly sofisticated, complete with semi-automatic ticket dispensing and even an ingenious security system to verify the validity of the Fun Passes Caine sells (500 plays for $2!).

Caine's first customer was filmmaker Nirvan Mullick, who was so impressed by Caine's handiwork he asked George's permission to make a short film about it.  The film has a humble run time of 10 minutes and 58 seconds, and it is a pure joy to watch.  I love stuff like this and they always make a me a little jealous.  Not jealous to have my own cardboard arcade, but jealous of the filmmakers for taking these little personal stories of seemingly no real consequence, and turning them into moving and uplifting narratives.  The filmmakers shouldn't get all the credit of course, people are actually living these lives, but it takes someone to realize this is something people should be aware of.

Like I said, it's only about 11 minutes long so take the time to check it out right now!  It'll make your day better, I promise.

Also, check out the website.