It was hard times in Providence, R.I., back in the early 2000s, and the city fathers decided that the best way to lift their town out of its economic doldrums was to build a shopping mall. Not just any mall, but a huge mall that catered not to the local, cash-strapped population, but rather to a clientele for whom money was little, if any, object. The execution was not subtle, neither in scale, nor in the placement of the entrance, which was carefully designed to be as far away from the locals living across the street as possible. This made sense because not only were those not the shoppers the mall, Providence Place, wanted to attract, they were also the people whose lives would be disrupted by the land grab by developers for whom quality of life, at least for the locals, did not register. The oft-told tale of rich versus poor provides the backdrop, literally and figuratively, for the multi award-winning documentary, SECRET MALL APARTMENT. The result is a puckish tale of protest, ingenuity, and performance art seeping into real life thanks to eight hometown heroes who clearly understood how to blend audacious social commentary with a good time.
The documentary unfolds in interviews with those heroes, seven of them extolling their ringleader, Michael Townsend, an art teacher who continues to inspire their lives. All are artists, and while they might not have achieved the financial success of those whose works appear in trendy galleries in New York or Los Angeles, that was never the point. They find joy in their work, and in lives enriched by seeing the world without the narrow focus numbers in a bank account. The camera captures the glint in their eyes and the affect in their body language that exhibits a joyful contentment. So does Townsend, the eighth hero, who has, unsurprisingly, been banned from the mall for life. It bothers him not a whit, though the loss of art spaces bulldozed to make way for that mall still palpably rankles.
Director Jeremy Workman allows the story of the secret apartment to unfold organically, starting with the gleeful reminiscences of good times there, to the first inklings how to make the apartment happen, to the scathingly clever ways the artists (there is no better moniker for them), managed to furnish the apartment and even electrify it into a cozy retreat. They were so resourceful, and lucky, that the apartment existed for four years, and they had the foresight to film their adventures with a camera so small that they could walk around the mall with it all but unnoticed. The immediacy of that footage is nothing short of intoxicating.
So is the way that Workman never lets us forget the bigger forces at work. Issues of gentrification and white privilege arise naturally, as does the quick, biting wit of the artists who might be having fun, but are also keenly aware that they are making a statement. As one says, mocking the battle cry of developers with no principle beyond the bottom line, they were just taking unused space and making it useful.
SECRET MALL APARTMENT is a documentary that makes its points with the same artistry of Townsend himself. Not the least of those points is the way it follows the art that Townsend is still creating, an intriguing use of duct-tape by Townsend that often includes ordinary people around him, especially children, to create emotionally resonant art pieces that are designed to be temporary. You can’t help but wonder why they are not getting the same recognition, not to mention acclaim, that Christo’s equally temporary works, did, albeit those were on a much larger scale. Then again, after we see Townsend’s girlfriend, who obviously loves him but just can’t fathom his non-relationship to money, maybe we should be just a little ashamed attempting to create a false equivalency between money and art. Sort of like those money-hungry developers do between profit and the quality-of-life of those impacted by their projects. Like all great art, this is a documentary that challenges as well as delights.
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