
Some out-of-the-box solutions have emerged to tackle the housing crisis. A community movement in Providence, Rhode Island took possession of a derelict part of the mall, which they used for four years, that they completed in 2010. They used these areas for a variety of community-building activities, as they viewed it as an area of capitalist and gentrification opportunities. Workman, Jeremy’s directed documentary ‘Jesse Eisenberg’s Secret Mall Apartment’, gives an insight into the innovation of the community but focuses less on the activities of the community.
That idea was pretty wild and not merely because it was one of such that was not particularly constructed. Rather, a rather unusual space in a venue built almost four years ago and just above 4 men who accepted such unusual difficulties. The mall was more than four years old when Michael Township, one out of four construction hired hands recalls having gone to the mall and recalls a part of the mall that had been built but was no longer in use. What was intended to be a quick intermission between the transitions of their moves only took days, then months, and finally years.
These events were coordinated to occur at this specific mall for a reason. In the year 1999, the Providence Place Mall was opened as part of a plan to boost the economy in that region. However, some in the region felt that it was never meant for them, with some even saying it was intended to divide the better parts of providence from the worse. That building, which is essentially a concrete block with no windows, does in its inexpensive mass-production design resemble Bikini Bottom from Spongebob Squarepants cozy and cold at the same time.
The presence and habitants of Providence Place were clearly not for economic purposes, they seemed more interested in self-proclaiming as ‘micro-developers’ of vacant land. Townsend and his colleagues seemed quite eager to give it a try as well but for how long? They kept scheduling one thing or the other in the spirit of playful cavalier till it dawned on them that they were couch surfing in the 750 square feet area. While engaging in activities that many would consider amoral and illicit, it’s hard to imagine how “Secret Mall Apartment” would be meaningful without the rather poor quality mini video camera Townsend always managed to have during this time with peripheral vision. Those unsteady video tapes and home movies in which the group was seen struggling to crawl through large holes and clumsily hoisting the well-loved sofa onto the roof added to the delightful homemade quality of the documentary which was precisely what this project was about.
It sounds as though the building is no longer a character in the story because more attention is being directed towards Townsend and how virtuous he is, his relatives giving testimonials, and a segment where he painted children’s hospital walls and makes a 9/11 memorial quite the character assassination. ‘The Secret Mall Apartment’, at no given moment, feels like it was intended to be a feature film, so the feeling most likely is not foreign to other viewers where its narrative flows like a short made long because of material added later while outtakes were combined to build the narrative.
Now, fighting over an abandoned building and patching it up sounds a little petty and over the top to even imagine as no one ever intended to firm up residence there with Townsend’s wife saying this, “I don’t want to work on his plaything. Get back to work on our actual house. If it’s just for a ‘corner cottage’ style then sure!” However, in the final ten minutes, viewers hope to have the reason everyone’s character actions are explored rather appropriate amends to solving the mystery that has been introduced- is a habit that is quite hard to break.
They construct an apartment set & film Townsend redoing the scene of his arrest. This offbeat sequence is on par with Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal’ As Nathan puts it This is at odds with the fact that taking a shot somehow makes everything more real than it is, which in a sense is appropriate for these four years during which this otherwise rather important place became a place which felt close to home.
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