'Let me back in': He stayed in Providence Place for years. Will the film about it play there?
Michael Townsend has watched a few showings now around the country of the documentary “Secret Mall Apartment,” about how he and seven other artists lounged furtively for years tucked away in their cozy space in the corner of the Providence Place mall parking garage.
And he thinks it's time.
Their quirky story needs to come home now, he says. It needs to go up there on a movie screen at that very mall.
“There’s no question that that’s where it needs to show, no question at all,” says the longtime Providence tape artist, now 53. “It’s like showing a documentary about the Red Sox at Fenway.”
And it may happen this year, if Townsend and producer Jeremy Workman get their way.
Will the documentary about the apartment in Providence Place mall actually show in Rhode Island?
Workman, whose film won the grand prize last weekend at the Independent Film Festival Boston, says he’s now in discussions with several theaters about showing the movie in Rhode Island this summer.
"There’s an amazing amount of interest in Providence [about the movie] that we’re really excited about,” said Workman. “We don’t exactly know what the plan is. We’re still in the initial stages.”
But “without a doubt,” it will be shown somewhere in Rhode Island, he said.
More: Artists lived in a secret apartment inside Providence Place mall. Now it's a movie.
The story behind the apartment in the mall
Townsend and his artist friends became instant urban legends in 2007 after mall security officers discovered the 750-square-foot furnished clubhouse where they had been spending occasional time together for four years.
Powered by electricity they siphoned from the mall and enclosed behind a wall of cinder blocks they erected themselves, the artists flouted convention. They entertained friends, played video games and pursued their artistic passions, all the while videotaping much of the experience, which Townsend has described as itself a form of performance art.
The hours of footage were never meant to be seen publicly, says Townsend. It was kept secret until he met Workman, whose reputation for doing excellent films about artists won him and the others over.
For Townsend, the mall experience turned out to be more than simply performance art and a commentary on the gentrification of the city that was threatening artistic work and living spaces.
Police charged him with trespassing.
The mall’s owners banished him from returning. Ever.
Could it be time to return to Providence Place?
He wonders now, 17 years later, if there might be room for forgiveness.
Or, at least, a day of dispensation if a deal can be worked out to show the movie at the Providence Place Cinemas.
“For God sakes, give me a ribbon to cut,” he says, laughing. “Let me back in. It would be great if we had a public un-banning.”
“My hope is that we will be able to organize a scenario where everybody wins. We’re pro-mall. We want the mall to benefit from its showing as much as possible. I think enough time has passed.”
A spokesman for Chicago-based Brookfield Properties, which now owns Providence Place, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Townsend says the movie is a “love letter to Providence, to the art community and how wonderful, weird and progressive the city is. It illustrates the city in all its quirks and warts and successes. “
It is “super funny but also very serious and very reflective, and Jeremy does a good job swinging that pendulum all over the place.”
If the movie does come to Providence, Townsend says “it has to be done right.” It shouldn't be just a one-night showing. It should have a “volume of showings” with perhaps panels and workshops on the importance of art in life.
“It would be awesome," he says, "if we could just get together and celebrate where it all unfolded.”
Stay tuned.
Contact Tom Mooney at tmooney@providencejournal.com
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Will documentary about man who lived in Providence Place mall come to RI?
