My Secret Mall Apartment Review – A Compelling, Undeniable Protest Against Gentrification
- Details
- Category: Haute This Issue
- Published on Friday, 12 September 2025 11:10
- Written by Janet Walker
My Secret Mall Apartment, from Mtuckman Media, presents a captivating and unique documentary as a group of artists in secret defiance of gentrification of their city, Providence Rhode Island, found a way to take back their power.
What began as a prank, a group of artists ejected from their studio space by the Providence Rhode Island Mall developers, were determined to sneak into the mall after dark and find a place to sleep. A one-night experiment to fight the power.
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Michael Townsend, who is an accomplished Tape artist, which many would question whether tape art is art at all, along with a friend happened on a small space, essentially a room the size of a large Manhattan studio apartment, that seemed to dead end above a steep staircase. For some reason, during the original construction, the room may have been used for supplies or storage, and it remained empty save a couple of cinderblocks. The room was fully constructed on three sides; the front was open and looked down on the back hallways of the mall's interior.
Once they found the space, the idea wasn't an immediate, wow let's turn this into our own personal protest, but as the mall had taken so much from the community, this group of artists, most of whom were recognized and gainfully employed as artists or were studying at the famous art and design school in Providence, decided first to just sleep there. Then sleeping on the concrete was uncomfortable, so they decided to move in a couch.
Soon they brought in the couch, and they decided to keep adding furniture, until the space had a homey feel. And a place to hang out, after hours. Since they needed electricity , they decided to use extension cords and simply use the malls. They ate in the food court, used the facilities, and other than illegally accessing the room, did not use the room for criminal enterprise. However, as they slowly lost their fear of being caught, they made mistakes, like leaving a photo album that contained all their pictures and used their real names when they played X-Box.
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By this time, the group of eight artists had decided they needed to construct a wall over the front of the unit, because they realized they were exposed. Should anyone happen to walk through this interior space and simply look up, they would be able to see clear signs of life. So, as artists and designers, they meticulously planned the wall, diagramming, measuring, and creating a miniature so they could understand what they needed, how many cinderblocks, the size of the door frame. They were professionals and wanted their work to show it. This meant smuggling in over two tons of cinderblock into the mall at night, through a single door in the parking garage that had a security alarm which rang for twenty seconds when opened.
Without concern for mall cops or the security system, they moved the blocks into the mall. Nearing the last load of cinderblocks, they are stopped by security and quickly talked their way out of the inquiry. After this they explain that they understand white privilege allowed them to escape the security guards scrutiny.
The core group had become so accustomed to "their" home away from home, that they failed to read the signs that the end was near. Instead of realizing these casual run-in's were warnings they took them as a chance to prove themselves, once again, of being capable to dupe the man.
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After some time, and nearing the fourth year, they returned to the space at night, as the rules were never enter space during the day, they found that someone else had been accessing the space. Someone had broken into their space. They felt violated.
Then, Michael began talking more openly about the apartment, explaining to the "cool" people he would run into what they had been doing for now more than four years. It seems he either wanted to be caught, and to take this experiment to the next level, what ever that was, or wanted to be caught for the exposure. One thing is sure, telling employees about the secret apartment, broadcasted his desire to be caught.
My Secret Mall Apartment is fascinating and as intriguing as the title suggest. The documentary also introduces the argument on the value of artistic expression, and of course, who decides what has artistic value.
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Understanding this group of artists were evicted from their space as gentrification removed the affordable studio options negated their art as valuable to the community. And for the developers, the rundown rowhouse studios that sat across from the mall had no value to the community. Artistic expression if not appealing in the eyes of the beholder, and in the case the developers who only envision financial gain, is rendered mute, and for the avant-garde of Providence, their art and the places to display their art was muted.
The ingenuity of those artists, who were always involved in art projects throughout this time, highlight the need for affordable housing, and not simply in Providence, but across American where at one time large shopping centers catered to the community and now sit empty. Redesigning space, which is on the rise, is critical to address the decaying communities.
Captivating and compelling, My Secret Mall Apartment is far more than just a wild prank, the secret apartment became a deeply meaningful place– a personal expression of defiance against local gentrification, a boundary-pushing work of public and private art.
My Secret Mall Apartment is available on demand September 16, 2025. It is a must see.
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Country: U.S.
Language: English.
Runtime: 91 minutes.
Director: Jeremy Workman.
Producer: Jeremy Workman.
Executive Producer: Jesse Eisenberg, Allen Altman, Cathie Altman, Matthew Spain, Ivan Williams, Peter Haberman, Lance Hoffman, Marnie Black, Scott Black, Amy Zelnick, Brad Zelnick.
Featuring: Michael Townsend, Adriana Valdez Young, Colin Bliss, Andrew Oesch, Greta Scheing, James Mercer, Emily Ustach, Jay Zehngebot, Glenn Lavertu, Paula Most, Brian Chippendale, Emily Bryant, Joan Townsend, Brady Townsend, Lauren Rosati, Marion Orr, Micah Salkind, Francis Leazes, Jr, .J. Hogue, Jim Drain, Raphael Lyon, Ian Jean Cozzens, Stephen Mattos, Martha Kuhlman, Lizzie Araujo Haller, Xander Marro, Umberto Crenca, Patricia Mclaughlin.
Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade. A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five screenplays, "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has completed the non-fiction narrative, "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," and "Days, Times, Seasons, Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," are available on Amazon. She is a member of the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a member of the International Federation of Journalists.
