Before I lived in NYC, every time, and I mean every single time, I would visit I simply had to spend some time and quarters in Chinatown Fair, the most hardcore badass arcade in the city. It pained me to discover the place was shut down a few years back, but I’m super excited to check out Kurt Vincent‘s upcoming documentary about the place, The Lost Arcade.
A new trailer for the film has been released, which will quickly familiarize your with this sweaty, dark, iconic place, and hopefully spark your interest in seeing the doc when it hits theaters in New York August 12th. A VOD release will follow sometime in September.
Written and produced by Irene Chin and directed by Kurt Vincent, THE LOST ARCADE, is 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. A documentary portrait of the Chinatown Fair and its denizens, THE LOST ARCADE is a eulogy for and a celebration of the arcade gaming community, tenacity, and Dance Dance Revolutionary spirit.
