Secret Mall Apartment
Directed by Jeremy Workman
Saturday, June 21, 6 pm | BUY TICKETS
$12 | $8 Speed members
“Dazzling . . . A kiss-off to gentrification.”—Coleman, Spilde, The Daily Beast
In 2003, eight young Rhode Island artists who had been displaced by retail developments created a secret apartment in a hidden space inside the Providence Place Mall and lived in it for four years, filming everything along the way. They snuck in furniture, tapped into the mall’s electricity, and even secretly constructed a brick wall with a locking door, smuggling in over two tons of cinderblock.
Far more than just a wild prank, the secret apartment became a deeply meaningful place for all its inhabitants – a personal expression of defiance against local gentrification, a boundary-pushing work of public/private art, a site to plan their empathetic mural projects, and finally, a 750 square foot space that defies capitalism. 2024, U.S., DCP, 91 minutes. Recommended for 15+.