Caine’s Arcade is a 10 minute documentary filmed by Los Angeles based filmmaker, Nirvan Mullick. It focuses on 9 year old Caine Monroy and the arcade he built totally out of cardboard boxes in his father’s garage. Caine built and designed all the fun arcade games himself. He even went as far as to create a ticket and a prize reward system, for which he used his old toys like hot wheels cars.
Not only was Nirvan the filmmaker, he was also Caine’s very first arcade customer. He spent $2 on a fun pass, which allowed him 500 turns on any of the arcade game machines – what a bargain!
The amazing effort, creativity and level of commitment shown by Caine really captured Nirvan’s heart. This, coupled with hearing that he had been Caine’s only customer, inspired Nirvan to organize a flash mob of surprise customers to go to Caine’s arcade.
The Impact
This video went viral very soon after being released and no-one could have guessed the amazing events that would unfold in Caine’s little life thereafter:
- Caine was invited to speak at the USC Marshall School of Business – the youngest entrepreneur to ever receive such an opportunity.
- He was also the youngest speaker at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival.
- Various business journals, including Forbes, have written about Caine and his arcade and used him as a case study to show how perseverance and optimism are critical in business.
- Caine was given a full scholarship to attend Colorado State University.
- The Imagination Foundation was founded in Caine’s honour. This is a non-profit that aims to build entrepreneurship and creativity in aspiring, young people like Caine around the world.
- And the list goes on!
Bringing it Home
This inspiring video shows the power of creativity. Since the release of this video, several schools have tried to make their own cardboard arcade, encouraging learners to think big and creatively.
Every child is born curious and creative. Our role as teachers is to help them not lose this and become boring adults. We need to be creating opportunities for learners to explore, create and let their imaginations run wild. As in Caine’s inspiring story, who knows what could come of a bit of creative thought, cardboard and glue.
