Once upon a time, eight friends built a secret apartment in a shopping center to live there for several years without being disturbed. Full two on the documentary “Secret Mall Apartment”.
When the Providence Place mall was built in the late 1990s, Rhode Island state leaders touted it as a sign of urban renewal for its struggling capital city. For eight artists, it became something else: their home.
In fact, eight friends built a makeshift apartment – complete with a sofa, a television, a video game system, a microwave and a cinder block wall – in an alcove hidden from the garage of the shopping complex. To run the appliances, they used the mall’s electricity. Surprisingly, this meeting place (where some spent several freezing nights) remained unknown for four years. Their bold gambit was made in response to the gentrification unfolding around them, a humorous protest against the capitalist forces that threatened to push the city’s artistic community to its limits.
Today, this story has become the subject of Secret Mall Apartmentthe new documentary from Jeremy Workman (Lily Topples the World), premiering March 8 at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival.
“The story is a bit of a Trojan horse, where you expect one thing and it constantly overturns your preconceptions when you watch it“, tell Jeremy Workman (via Variety). “You hear the premise and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is going to be like one of those crazy prank movies.’ But it’s about using it to explore deeper ideas about art and what it means, as well as gentrification and how we live in the shadow of these societies.”
Produced by Jesse Eisenberg
The director has once again recruited Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, Zombieland) as producer. The actor indeed felt a personal connection with the story of the Providence Place infiltrators.
“As an art major, I kept thinking that what they were doing was so pure and so perfect“, did he declare. “It’s art for art’s sake. I kind of saw it from that perspective. My favorite thing to do in my life is this: I write plays, I finish my play and we read a little, and it’s my favorite day of the year. And then unfortunately, it becomes a commodity. And we have to sell tickets, and that becomes this product. And so when I watch this film, I’m just swept away as an artist, by the purity of their art and that kind of imagination.”
A heist film… or almost!
Secret Mall Apartment follows Michael Townsend, who had the good idea to settle in this bastion of consumerism. His identity was known, but that of his seven collaborators went mostly unnoticed. Jeremy Workman interviewed them for the film, where they recount the complicated logistics involved in moving furniture and building materials around a busy shopping mall, right under the noses of security guards. “It’s almost like a heist movie”, says the director.
Wheelhouse Creative
Workman also had access to hours of footage filmed by the friends, capturing their lives in their secret apartment, as well as the planning and construction that went into creating their unlikely hideaway. After discovering it, mall staff dismantled the structure, so the original filmmakers and artists built a replica of the location for the documentary.
“It seemed logical to do it again for this film”, explains Workman. “I had to find a clever way to revisit a space that no longer exists.”
A critique of society
Even though the artists who lived in the mall are not rich (some even live in marginal economic conditions), they were aware of certain advantages they enjoyed. The film points out, for example, that Michael Townsend, who is white, did not have the same fears about law enforcement that a black man might have had.
“What’s so interesting about this film is how it fits into a larger discussion about housing, gentrification, urban development, and even class and race, as these artists contemplate their own type of privilege“, explain Jesse Eisenberg. “They were allowed to do something without worrying about the threat of intensive police surveillance.”
From now on, filmmakers are taking Secret Mall Apartment in Austin, Texas, a city that has itself experienced something of a gentrification in recent years. “I have a feeling this is going to be really appreciated and understood there”, declares Jeremy Workman.
As for the Providence Place Mall, it has seen better days. Amazon has disrupted the retail space, leading to a series of store closures and a decline in customers. “They are really struggling”, adds the director.
Finally, as for Michael Townsend, he is still banned from setting foot in the mall he once called home!