Gaming is (sometimes) about more than just pushing buttons and scoring points; gaming can build a community and sense of camaraderie — especially when all housed inside an arcade. This is the mission statement of first-time documentarian Kurt Vincent, whose documentary, The Lost Arcade, has been given a first trailer featuring the glowing, flashing lights of The Chinatown Fair and all its dedicated frequenters.
The Fair became a pillar of the local community, drawing in all types over the simple unifying idea of quarters, buttons, and joysticks, which stood for something more than just points and players: “I ran away from a foster home,” one man states, “in the daytime I’d go on the train and sweep [them], but at night [I’d go to] the arcade.”
Ahead of a release at Metrograph next month, see the trailer below:
An intimate story of a once-ubiquitous cultural phenomenon on the edge of extinction, especially in New York City, which once had video arcades by the dozen. These arcades were as much social hubs to meet up and hang out as they were public arenas for gamers to demonstrate their skills. But by 2011, only a handful remained, most of them corporate affairs, leaving the legendary Chinatown Fair on Mott Street as the last hold-out of old-school arcade culture. Opened in the early 1940’s, Chinatown Fair, famous for its dancing and tic tac toe playing chickens, survived turf wars between rival gangs, increases in rent, and the rise of the home gaming system to become an institution and haven for kids from all five boroughs
The Lost Arcade opens on August 12th.