Secret Mall Apartment (Screenings & Conversations) at Real Art Ways

Skip to main content

Event

Secret Mall Apartment (Screenings & Conversations)

 

Saturday, May 3, we will host Tape Artist Michael Townsend (the main subject of the documentary) and AS220 co-founder and artist Umberto Crenca for a special conversation after the 7:00 pm screening, moderated by our Executive Director, Will K. Wilkins. UPDATE: The director, Jeremy Workman, will not be able to make this screening.

Tickets available here for May 3.

Tuesday, May 6, we will host “How We Living: A Q&A on Livability in Hartford w/Taneisha Duggan Director of Arts, Culture and Entertainment and Jeff Auker Director of Development Services.” This special conversation will take place after the 7:00 pm screening. All Hartford artists and creatives are invited to join this discussion. This event is sponsored by the City of Hartford and is free to attend (with registration).

Register here for May 6.

We will be playing this movie every day from Friday, May 2 to Thursday, May 8. Advance tickets are available for all other showtimes here.

“Compelling…. Jeremy Workman’s documentary looks back at a project that may sound like a joke but had serious underpinnings.” -Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times

“Upon first glance, Jeremy Workman’s Secret Mall Apartment tells a bizarre story about artists who created and lived in an apartment in their local mall. But at its core, the film offers unique insights into gentrification, consumerism, and the impermanence of art.” – The Austin Chronicle

“A hugely entertaining and insightful doc about issues/art that will force you to think while you laugh.” – Ken Burns

100% on Rotten Tomatoes

Imagine living rent-free in a mall for four years—hidden in plain sight, just beyond the food court. That’s what a group of artists pulled off in the early 2000s. Director Jeremy Workman brings their astonishing true story to the screen in Secret Mall Apartment.

Workman—an Emmy-nominated, Academy Award-shortlisted, SXWS Jury Grand Prize-winning director and filmmaker—has edited multiple Oscar montages and Lifetime Achievements tributes and has featured some of his films on Netflix.

Produced by actor and fellow filmmaker Jesse Eisenberg, Secret Mall Apartment chronicles the covert creation of a fully functional living space inside a Rhode Island mall, a subversive experiment in urban squatting and artistic rebellion.