“There’s art that you see and enjoy, art that entertains you, and then there’s art that impacts you, and that’s the kind of piece this was,” says Umberto Crenca, founder of AS220, in the film Secret Mall Apartment. “It had an impact that was emotional and psychological and is not easily described.”
In October 2007, what initially seemed like an insignificant arrest at the Providence Place Mall turned into a story that made local and national headlines. Michael Townsend, a Providence-based artist, was caught trespassing at the Mall with a story that would quickly make him and his renegade crew of fellow artists local legends.
Secret Mall Apartment is a new documentary from Director Jeremy Workman and Executive Producer Jeremy Eisenberg that tells this incredible story. After making the rounds at festivals in 2024, the film will officially be released next week, with screenings scheduled at theaters around the country, including Newport’s Jane Pickens Film and Event Center and the Providence Place Mall, where it all went down. (The film was previewed locally by Newport Film last summer on the lawn at The Elms, where an estimated 3,000 attended.)
The documentary describes how a group of eight artists used concert blocks to wall off a space in the mall, transforming it into a makeshift studio apartment. Piece by piece, they furnished it with various items, including a table, a TV, and even a video game system. However, the project reflected a broader narrative about art, gentrification, and rebellion in the 21st century, which the film conveys exceptionally well.
We recently spoke to two principals, Director/Producer Jeremy Workman and project founder Michael Townsend, to learn more. In the film, Townsend explains that he was seeking out “the nowhere space, an anomaly in the architecture, a cavernous space that typically goes unused.” That led to a conversation among his fellow artist/activists. “This is a lot of space; maybe we have a responsibility to do something with it,” he explained. “We joked about being micro-developers … but just for 750 square feet.”
Opening night at Jane Pickens, March 21, will include a talk with several former occupants of the apartment, three of the original “Mall Eight.” “Those are the eight people that lived in the mall from 2003 to 2007, and three of them, Adriana Valdez Young, Andrew Oeschand, and James Mercer will be doing a Q&A at Janes Pickens. It should be a pretty cool opening night,” said Workman.
The documentary doesn’t shy away from the controversy surrounding redevelopment in Providence around the turn of the 21st century, particularly the gentrification of neighborhoods like Eagle Square. That process included nearby Fort Thunder, a former mill building that artists had transformed into creative work and living spaces. In this context, the Mall had become “a sort of cultural enemy,” as Townsend notes in the film.
Workman met Townsend after seeing his artwork on display in Greece. “I met Michael kind of randomly in Greece. I saw this incredible artwork, his tape art, on the walls of this cultural center,” he explained. “I was so blown away by that that I just wanted to meet the artist.”
The pair met, and Townsend shared his remarkable story. “He told me this bonkers story about living inside the mall, and I thought he was punking me,” said Workman. I thought it was all a big joke until he showed me this footage of them going up a ladder.”
“At that point, I decided that I had to convince Michael and the other seven to let me make this documentary,” Workman continued. “It was really hard because the documentary isn’t just about the apartment. Obviously, the secret apartment is front and center, but it also gets into all this incredible artwork – projects that these eight were also doing simultaneously. I think the biggest challenge was just sort of balancing this incredible stuff they were doing with this really fun, sugar rush of a story that’s almost like a heist movie of them sneaking in and living in the apartment.”
Townsend was already a fan of Workmen when they met. “It was a tiny bit of starstruck to meet an actual director of movies,” he said. “Until I met Jeremy, I had turned down north of 30 different directors who had approached me over the course of the 15 years since the story had happened.”
Townsend wanted an account that put the art at the center. “Their approach was too singular. They were just interested in, as Jeremy said, the sugar rush moment, the prankish folklorist nature of the person who lived in the mall. But to tell the story really well, you have to get into the context and the intentions and paint the picture with all the people who are involved.”
That “picture” is deeply meaningful; there are moments in the film that will make you laugh and others that may bring a tear to your eye. The film depicts moving portrayals of Townsend’s healing work with tape art, at locations including Hasbro Children’s Hospital, the site of the Oklahoma City bombing, and Ground Zero in New York City.
“When I started, this was a story about Providence, about gentrification, about our cities, about how people within our cities are affected by corporations and how these decisions by massive development projects really impact everyone,” said Workman. Indeed, the secret apartment becomes a work of art and an act of resistance, an ongoing act of corporate disobedience.”
“This has such resonance and relevance to so many people. When they first went into the mall, it was this real act of defiance against the mall, an act of resistance,” said Workman. “Corporate gentrification happening around us, but then over the course of their four year project, while living there, they’re doing all this charitable and volunteer artwork. They’re going into hospitals and working in children’s wards with very sick children, for like no money; they’re doing this for years,” adds Workman.
Secret Mall Apartment opens at the Jane Pickens Film and Event Center in Newport on March 21, the same day it screens at the Providence Place Mall. It opens March 28 at movie theaters around the region. Click here for details. The film is expected to be available on a streaming platform soon. Stay tuned!
