Secret Mall Apartment (2024) - 8/10

Roman Mars brought me here. Featured on the 99% Invisible podcast, this story sounded wonderful and this documentary does not disappoint. Providence, Rhode Island has a mall, Providence Place Mall. It’s 2003, the year that four friends decide to go live at said mall. Not shopping. Not hanging out, although they do both, but… live, for a week. Really just because why not. Americans love their malls, although this one has disgruntled some as its creation ironically replaced homes, rerouting rail tracks and rivers. Severed and relocated communities and priced many out of it altogether. We meet Andrea Valdez-Young, Michael Townsend, Andrew Oesch and Jay Zehngebot who are basically playing a game with very little plan other than to document it all, to see how long they can go before the mall security catches them out. There’s one obvious flaw, where to sleep. Here we get to the origins of the mall apartment, or the ‘nowhere space’ as it begins. During construction, Michael had noticed an area that seemed to have no purpose. A void, surplus, abandoned, left-over… forgotten. Until the group attempt to make it a home. They’re DIY rascals. Artists. Scavenging, scheming and improvising. It’s all delightfully inventive, mischievous, but there’s a moral undercurrent. The space is being wasted, they’re duty bound to fulfil its potential. The mall apartment is not their first project. Providence is a place that’s seen better days. Its industry has collapsed, the vacant buildings are repurposed as squats and artist spaces, for bands, for expression, for people and that’s what’s at the heart of this. People vs soulless developers. Before long, the group has expanded and the initial rush has passed. It’s no longer a game. They’ve settled in, eating pizza, playing video games, planning public art installations. Now eight strong with Colin, James, Greta and Emily. It’s decided that for safety, this is now their secret. No outsiders. The theme music that’s used by another podcast, The Rest is Politics throws me off momentarily, but this is really engaging stuff. They work hard and are the epitome of positivity. It’s not just the apartment, that’s the focus of course, but this digs into the people and their philosophy. Mainly Michael, he’s the teacher, the father figure, the spark and there is a lot of spark! There’s a lot going on here and it’s all beautiful. It’s not just a great story, it’s a great documentary in its own right, one that continues to push the message at its core of art and life being one and the same.

8/10