Did you ever wish you could live at the mall? In 2003, that’s just what Michael Townsend and several of his friends did, creating one of the most original guerilla art projects of the 21st century, building and furnishing a hidden 750 sq. foot apartment — complete with couch, cabinet, even a TV and PlayStation — inside the Providence Mall in Rhode Island. It remained undetected for four years. As a small cohort of artists who had been displaced due to the mall’s development, the initial act of living in the mall evolved from a practical joke to a personal act of reclaiming space from real estate moguls and developers.
Stitched together from camcorder footage from twenty years ago alongside interviews with the original participants -– many of whom are only revealing themselves now for the first time -– Secret Mall Apartment strikes a balancing act between the absurdity of its story and surprisingly profound questions about gentrification, the nature of social art, and what truly makes a home.
Community Partner
Michael Townsend
USA
2024
English
Coarse language
Open to youth at International Village
At Fifth Avenue and The Rio
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Jesse Eisenberg, Allen Altman, Cathie Altman, Matthew Spain,Ivan Williams, Peter Haberman, Lance Hoffman, Marnie Black, Scott Black, Amy Zelnick, Brad Zelnick
Producer
Jeremy Workman
Cinematography
Michael Lisnet, Jeremy Workman, Dan Kennedy
Editor
Paul Murphy, Jeremy Workman
Production Design
Suja Ono
Original Music
Olivier Manchon, Clare Manchon
Art Director
Grace Bilbao, Susan Choi
Jeremy Workman
Jeremy Workman is the director of the documentaries Lily Topples the World (Discovery, 2021), Deciding Vote (The New Yorker, 2023), The World Before Your Feet (Greenwich Entertainment / Kino Lorber, 2018), Magical Universe (IFC Films, 2013), among others. Jeremy’s documentaries have played at prestigious film festivals and been released in theaters across the globe.
Filmography: Who Is Henry Jaglom? (1995); Magical Universe (2013); The World Before Your Feet (2018); Lily Topples the World (2021)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Stealing Angel
In this humane comedy from Marseille filmmaker Robert Guédiguian a trusted caregiver takes advantage of her clients, stealing to support her grandson's piano lessons. When her theft is discovered the repercussions are surprising...
A Serious Man
The Coen brothers' best movie is a painfully funny existentialist comedy about a physics professor, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlberg), benumbed but bewildered by his wife's announcement that she wants a divorce. That's only the start of his troubles.
blur: Live at Wembley Stadium
90,000 fans, 4 50-something men, and a set that includes Parklife; Tender; Girls & Boys; The Universal and Song 2. This 2023 concert film delivers the goods. (Check out the accompanying observational doc, To the End, for the run up to the show.)
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Horace McCoy's existential Great Depression novel is the basis for a brutally compelling movie, and the first performance where Jane Fonda could show her chops. She's one of many desperate souls competing in a dance marathon that lasts for days and weeks.
