“Secret Mall Apartment”

Directed by: Jeremy Workman

Plot: In 2003, eight Rhode Islanders created a secret apartment inside a busy mall and lived there for four years, filming everything along the way.

Review:

The first thing I thought of when I started this documentary was the song “Let’s Go To The Mall” by Robin Sparkles (lol) The story opens in Providence, Rhode Island at the Providence Place Mall. The story focuses on Michael Townsend, a local artist, who notices during construction of the mall that there is a “nowhere space.”

Michael and eight other artists move in to the space and call it “home.” They move the furniture in an entrance of the mall that always blares an alarm when the door is opened. Nice security, eh? They furnish it like you would your first apartment. Hand me down furniture, TV, video game consoles, couches, etc. There was always a little part of me as a kid that wondered what it would be like to be in a mall overnight. Running around trying on clothes, watching movies in the FYE, etc. So this def evoked some feelings. Think the song “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane. Somewhere you and your friends can be yourselves.

Another theme in the film is gentrification. The mall was built on the promise to revitalize the Downtown area, but it priced out poorer shoppers, as some of the stores were just too expensive for some to afford. The opening of the mall caused the closure of an arts district nearby. So think of this living arrangement as a protest squatting situation?

The documentary had me engrossed until it veered off into other world events. I get WHY they did, but for me it interrupted the flow of the film. Having said that, the film is so nostalgic and has a bit of “fuck the world” mentality that I think we all need right now.

*** out of *****

“Secret Mall Apartment” is available now to buy on DVD, BluRay and to rent on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Fandango At Home, YouTube and Google Play