Review by Marcus Siu

In 2003, Michael Townsend, (arguably the founder of the Tape Art movement and who deserves to be a subject of a separate full feature documentary in itself), and a group of young creative artists discovered a hidden underutilized 750-square-foot space inside the Providence Place Mall in Rhode Island, USA, and turned it into their secret home.

They sneaked in furniture (a large couch, a dresser, a grand credenza, a dining table and chairs, a television, a PlayStation, a waffle iron, and countless personal effects), tapped into the mall’s electricity, and even constructed a brick wall with a locking door, smuggling in over two tons of cinderblock to keep their hideout concealed, bypassing building security with many close calls.

They used the mall’s restrooms for running water and managed to live there for up to three weeks at a time without being detected. The group even planned to add a kitchen and a second bedroom, but their secret was exposed when a visiting artist accidentally revealed their existence…four years later.

This wasn’t intended as a prank. Their idea was a creative protest against real estate developments that had displaced many residents, including Townsend himself.

Townsend initially met Director Jeremy Workman in Athens, Greece at an art show just a few years ago when they quickly became friends. He was a already an admirer of Workmen’s work even before they met. A few days later, he spilled the beans to Workman about the hidden secret apartment.

Townsend finally found himself a filmmaker who he could absolutely trust to tell his side of the story. Prior to meeting Workman, he turned down 30+ different directors who approched him over the course of 15 years since the news had happened.

“Where I had wondered if they were just goofy pranksters, I quickly learned that they created the secret apartment to make a statement against gentrification.” Workman stated, “They had lost their homes as a result of development, and this was their unique personal way to show developers that they weren’t going anywhere.”

Workman has many accolades to his credit, winning several Film Festival Audience Awards for Best Documentary for his work for “Secret Mall Apartment”, as well as his 2021 film, “Lily Topples the World” which won the Jury Grand Prize for Best Documentary at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival. He also happens to be the son of Chuck Workman, the Academy Award winning director who won Best Live Action film for his 1986 film, “Precious Images”, and the go-to guy for much of the montages and “in memorium” footage seen at the Academy Awards.

“Apparently, the secret apartment was actually some sort of Rhode Island urban legend”, Workman explained. “When the apartment was discovered in 2007, the story had been covered breathlessly in the local news (and beyond).  But since then, it had receded from public memory, lost to urban myth and local lore.  A lot of Providence locals no longer even knew about it.”

This very unusual story surely belongs in the “stranger than fiction” category. Even the most creative script writers in Hollywood wouldn’t be able to conjur up this wacky concept of an idea, no matter what their choice of hallunicgetic drug they consumed.

One of the hilarious and most jaw-dropping moments is when they are sneaking in a large sofa during the during the mall’s closing hours, through the side entry and eventually up a ladder into a tiny alcove. It reminds me of when I see tiny little ants carry bits of food five times larger and heavier their size ascending on route to their final destination.

Leave it to some creative art-school kids who thought outside the box to live inside one inside a shopping mall that symbolizes capital civilization living at its finest. You just can’t help yourself to root for them to break into the shopping mall, not to smash and grab merchandise, but to just live their lives.

The pace of the documentary is like a dramatic live-action thriller intertwined with interviews with the subjects involved using original footage from 2003-2007, as well as present day interviews, giving us more insight of what was going on with the creative minds of those involved. It becomes obvious that besides being anti-gentrification, these considerate and thoughtful individuals care deeply about their community and give generously through their art.

I certainly haven’t looked at shopping malls the same way after seeing this film. You won’t either.

From Executive Producer Jesse Eisenberg.