Secret Mall Apartment (2025)

If you’re a millennial that remembers the days of YouTubers vlogging their attempts at the 24 hour Overnight Challenge, or miss the vibes of the early 2000s, Secret Mall Apartment will tickle your nostalgia receptors. This documentary looks back fondly as a group of artists recall their incredibly successful but short-lived passion project in the Providence Place Mall in Rhode Island.

From 2003 to 2007 eight artists: Michael, Andrew, Colin, Adriana, Greta, James, Jay, and Emily, created a sanctuary of sorts to commune, create, rest, and exist freely. They documented a significant amount of their adventure giving us more than just a peek into how the secret apartment came to be. Captained by Michael, the artist behind the vision of the secret apartment, each artist followed gleefully with boldness. Like the other artists that took refuge in the apartment, Michael was discouraged by the gentrification of his neighborhood for the sake of a highly commercialized mall that cast a massive shadow over the local small businesses and community. Utilizing the space prior to purchase, Michael secretly exhibited installation work in the burrows of the abandoned architecture of the neighborhood, along with a local band who played underground shows in the available space as well. In the eyes of business, this was all free game and quickly purchased for profit to build the mall. Lives were altered, homes were affected, communities were changed forever once construction commenced. Watching, observing, and quietly keeping note, Michael noticed a gap in the architectural design of the mall. Once up and running he set out to see if his theory was true. To his hopeful curiosity, he found a small space tucked in the hollows of the mall that could be accessed via a few odd, but creative paths.