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Eight Friends Built a Secret Apartment in a Mall and Hid There Undetected for Years; A New SXSW Documentary Explains How and Why


Director Jeremy Workman and producer Jesse Eisenberg discuss their SXSW documentary 'Secret Mall Apartment' and share a trailer

When the Providence Place Mall was constructed in the late ’90s, it was touted by Rhode Island leaders as a sign of urban renewal for its struggling capital city. These friends constructed a makeshift apartment — complete with a sofa, a TV and video game system, a microwave and a cinderblock wall — in a hidden alcove of the shopping complex’s garage. Their audacious gambit was launched in response to the gentrification taking place around them, a humorous protest against the capitalist forces that threatened to push the city’s artistic community to its outer edges.

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