If you need proof of how clever and creative previous generations of young people had to be in order to have fun before smartphones, social media and streaming TV (plus anything else that’s currently ruining human interaction), look no further than Secret Mall Apartment.
The new documentary — which is just as to-the-point as its title — takes us back more than 20 years ago to Providence, R.I., where an inviting radio commercial for the new behemoth shopping center, Providence Place, inspires a crew of struggling young artist buddies to see if they can actually make the mall their new home-away-from-home. What begins as a weeklong survival test to see how long they could loiter without being kicked out by security turns into a daring project in which one of them finds an abandoned 750-square-foot “nowhere space” that’s screaming for an extreme makeover.
This was more than a dirty little secret tucked inside a mammoth shopping center for four years. For these smart-ass squatters, it was a chance to work with — as developers called it — underutilized space. They had actually utilized space like this before they’d even heard that term: Many of them lived in or around Fort Thunder, the textile factory turned music venue/artist space that was all theirs — until a developer told them to kick rocks.
So was this a hidden art installation, a fuck-you to gentrification or just a place to crash? For director Jeremy Workman (son of documentary-filmmaking royalty), what it was exactly isn’t the point. Although he has all the footage the artists recorded using low-res mini cameras that can fit inside an Altoids tin, Workman — who’s always had a flair for crafting docs around brilliant, boundary-pushing weirdos (Who Is Henry Jaglom?, Magical Universe) — is more focused on talking to the aging, occasionally barefoot Gen-Xers who found inspiration in their town’s nooks and crannies. Chief among them is de facto leader/charming kook Michael Townsend, whose ambitious public installations include “The Tunnel,” an underground exhibit that takes place entirely in a water drainage tunnel. (Talk about nice work — if you can find it.)
If you already know how Providence Place is currently hanging in there during this era of online shopping (Google it!), you know that these young men and women weren’t just some ragtag provocateurs, getting one over on the eyesore that took over their home turf. They were groundbreaking informal settlers, risking it all by creating a clubhouse inside a place that was clearly made for more privileged clientele.
Just like the survivors in the original Dawn of the Dead, the “residents” of Secret Mall Apartment found a nice spot to chill and be themselves — while shoppers were taking over the building, stumbling from one boutique store to another like brain-dead zombies.
