SECRET MALL APARTMENT is a documentary about a bunch of artists in Rhode Island who were pissed off at the creation of a giant ugly mall in their home town but discovered a small cavity in its architecture and decided to create a cool hang-out space there. It's a story you just couldn't make up. Over days and weeks and months they scoped out the security guards' routine and where the security cameras were and through no small effort managed to scramble up into this space and make it their own. They literally carried in a SOFA! It wasn't that habitable really - cold and damp. But the sheer audacity of the plan turned from a bit of a stunt into something more provocative and meaningful. A way to take back real estate that was poorly designed and alienating to its local community and turn it into something beloved and community-minded.
Director Jeremy Workman's film is tightly edited and neatly constructed and utterly compelling. I discovered a whole new world of artists using their art for good. Michael Townsend - the man at the centre of it all - had used his "tape art" to commemorate victims of 9/11 and to cheer up severely ill kids. He seems to be a really earnest human and probably impossible to live with. I love that people like this somehow exist, defying The Man, and I love that they recorded their endeavours. This a truly unique film about a truly unique set of people doing something crazy. It deserves the widest possible audience.
SECRET MALL APARTMENT has a 91 minute runtime. It was released in the US last month.
No comments:
Post a Comment