The curious story that travelled around the world. A group of Rhode Island residents turned a small unused mall space into an apartment. Separating the stupefying from the puzzlingly make for a lot of questions. Local heroes, rebels or just a joke, the story is about a sustained act of soft defiance. The documentary film Secret Mall Apartment gives an account of what started as an innocent act that became finger in the face lifestyle to corporate rampage.
A Black and Paper interview with Michael Townsend.
You covered a number of issues in this documentary from race, class, socio economics, gentrification, were these written in the script or as you started on this journey these manifested?
The answers filmed in the documentary were all organic and the result of good open conversations with the film makers in interviews. All the artists were filmed at different times and the first time we all saw each other’s responses was in the final cuts of the film.
After the story broke in the media, what was the response?
International news. In the few months after the story broke we were called from cities all over the world who all had their own niche interests about the intersections of mall/culture/society and how the Secret Mall Apartment could be used as a lens to reflect on their own experiences in their cities. Of particular interest – Hong Kong, Johannesburg, cities in India, Ireland, and Norway.
Why not go commercial to cash in on the tale, a movie deal, or a streaming series?
In the aftermath of getting caught and the swift spread of this story internationally – we quickly internalized that as a narrative and inspiration, it was doing remarkably well on its on. As a group we decided that it would not be as strong a story if we weighed it down with a movie/book/tv show. So! The story lived on as legend and was owned and retold by the people who wanted to retell it. It bounced around the bar, taxis, parties, and Reddit for close to 20 years before the Secret Mall Apartment movie finally painted a fuller story.
Providence Place Mall is bankrupt, is there a sweet satisfaction or a sense of irony to this situation?
Not really. Providence made the decision to make the mall a major economic engine and part of the the cities fabric. For it to fail is very sad and a frightening display of bad leadership, planning, and economics. That said, it is wild that we got to launch the national cinema run of the movie last year AT the mall. AND it did a 32 week run there in the movie theatre.
Artists find a space, then it is targeted, invaded, gentrified, do you have a theory on this process?
I have the lived experience… and one that is not unique. This is a cycle that every city understands and multiple types of artists have experienced.
In short – artists need cheap space to make their work – that space needs to be big – artists are far more willing to live/work in raw/uncomfortable spaces – once artists start to “cool up” a building or neighborhood it will bring more people – then start becoming an economic generator on a small scale – and the gentrification is when someone looks at the the small generator and tries to Scale It to something so big that it has to displace the people who started it. The this the short vague framework.
Are you still producing the tape murals?
Yes indeed. Big murals. Small murals. And lots of lots of collaborative murals/drawing every week with people in hospitals, schools, community centers, and psychiatric facilities. We see new and fresh Tape Art drawings every week.
Secret Mall Apartment directed by Jeremy Workman is available on Netflix.