Film Review: Secret Mall Apartment
by Shelly Schoeneshoefer

Jeremy Workman, USA 2024

A documentary based on a true incident where eight art students entered the Providence Place Mall in Rhode Island in 2003 and find 750 square feet of unused space. They decide that it would make a perfect apartment, and they begin to document the process of building this secret apartment where they lived for four years. It is not a prank but becomes a philosophic entity that holds many political, economic, and social meanings to these eight individuals using this space. The documentary takes a look at the past how the development of this 1.3-million-square-foot Providence Place Mall comes about and its impact on the city itself. This film reveals the names of all the artists involved in building this secret apartment, and how they view their project now. The interviews with Michael Townsend, Adriana Valdez-Young, Colin Bliss, Andrew Oesch, and Greta Scheing are insightful when looking at the development in a city and who benefits and who is left behind. It truly is an amazing film to see, since it reflects the current situation in most of our cities around the world.