I saw folks commenting about this video on Facebook yesterday, saying it had made them cry. I could see that the video was about a young boy who created an arcade out of cardboard boxes.
I don’t think that’s gonna make my tears well up, I said to myself. But they did. Twice.
What is it about the story that makes folks cry? Triumph of the human spirit, both on an individual and on a group level. It’s better if I don’t go into great detail and instead let you see for yourself how that triumph of the human spirit unfolds.
The story also fits the definition of story I’ve come to support, set forth by Kendall Haven, although “jeopardy” may be a stretch:
A story is: a character-based narrative of an interesting character’s struggles to reach a real and important goal that is initially blocked by some combination of one or more problems and conflicts that have the potential to create some real risk and danger (jeopardy) for that character, all presented in sufficient detail to make the story seem vivid, compelling, and memorable.
Caine’s Arcade from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo.