Results: Secret Mall Apartment

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. For eight artists, it became something else — home. Now, a new documentary from Jeremy Workman ("Lily Topples the World"), tells their fascinating story in "Secret Mall Apartment," that premieres March 8 at the South By Southwest film festival. Would this documentary interest you?

The eight friends, headed by Michael Townsend, 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. There was no running water — instead they used the mall bathrooms. To run their appliances, they tapped into the mall's electricity. Amazingly, this hangout spot went undiscovered for four years. 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. Are you surprised that this went undetected for four years?

Workman interviewed the eight friends for the film, where they recount the complicated logistics that went into moving furniture and construction material into a busy mall, right under the noses of the security guards. He also had access to hours of footage that the friends took capturing life in their secret mall apartment, as well as the planning and building that went into pulling together their unlikely hideaway. On his Web site, Townsend said he was inspired by a Christmas ad for the mall that featured a "an enthusiastic female voice talking about how great it would be if you (we) could live at the mall." Have you ever (maybe as a child or teen) ever thought how much fun it would be to be trapped in a shopping mall after hours or to stay in a shopping mall after the mall closed?

The leader of an artists' cooperative, Townsend had been sentenced to probation for setting up a secret apartment. But Providence Police Maj. Stephen Campbell said he and other detectives were so intrigued they visited the apartment to see for themselves. "I was surprised at what he was able to accomplish," Campbell said. "But what he did was clearly criminal. The mall is private property." Do you think Townsend should have been charged?