In 2003, eight Rhode Island artists created a secret apartment inside the busy Providence Place Mall and lived there for four years, filming everything along the way. They snuck in furniture, tapped into the mall’s electricity, and even constructed a wall, smuggling in more than two tons of cinderblock.
Far more than just a wild prank, the secret apartment became a deeply meaningful place for its inhabitants. It was a personal expression of defiance against local gentrification, a boundary-pushing work of public/private art, a clubhouse in which large-scale charitable art projects were planned, and, finally, a 750 square-foot middle finger to The Man.
Featuring never-before-seen footage of the space and revealing the identities of all the participants for the first time, SECRET MALL APARTMENT is more than just a bonkers true story. Director Jeremy Workman (Lily Topples The World, The World Before Your Feet, Deciding Vote) delivers a poignant exploration of a group of artists who discovered their purpose within the most commercial and improbable places.
“Fascinating.. A delightful, thought-provoking movie that’s about a lot of things at the same time. It’ll make you see the world with fresh eyes.”
Matt Zoller Seitz
RogerEbert.com
"Worth cheering... Thanks to its thoughtful protagonists and filmmaker Jeremy Workman, what starts out as a quirky human interest story becomes a profoundly humane portrait of creativity and community."
Ann Hornaday
The Washington Post
“Remarkable... A dazzling doc that’s a kiss-off to gentrification… Affirms the power and necessity of art and those who create it.”
Coleman Spilde
The Daily Beast