Jesse Eisenberg Reunites with Director Jeremy Workman for ‘Secret Mall Apartment’ Doc — Watch Trailer
“A Real Pain,” writer/director/actor Jesse Eisenberg isn’t just campaigning for an Oscar: Eisenberg is also readying the theatrical release of his documentary, “Secret Mall Apartment.”
Eisenberg executive produces the festival favorite feature, which is directed by Jeremy Workman (“Lily Topples The World”). This is Eisenberg’s second collaboration with Workman after executive producing Workman’s 2018 documentary “The World Before Your Feet.”
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“Secret Mall Apartment” tells the story of eight Rhode Island artists who created a secret apartment inside the busy Providence Place Mall in 2003. The group lived there for four years and filmed (almost) everything along the way.
As the official synopsis teases, the secret apartment became a “personal expression of defiance against local gentrification, a boundary-pushing work of public/private art, a clubhouse in which large-scale charitable art projects were planned, and, finally, a 750 square-foot ‘F you’ to The Man.”
In other words, it was about more than just squatting.
“Secret Mall Apartment” reunites the eight participants in the social/retail experiment — Tape Art movement founder Michael Townsend, Adriana Valdez Young, Colin Bliss, James J.A. Mercer, Andrew Oesch, Greta Scheing, Jay Zehngebot, and Emily Ustach — for the first time in 17 years.
“The story of ‘Secret Mall Apartment’ instantly became an obsession for me,” director Workman said in a press statement. “Where I had wondered if they were just goofy pranksters, I quickly learned that they created the secret apartment to make a statement against gentrification. They had lost their homes as a result of development, and this was their unique personal way to show developers that they weren’t going anywhere. Where I had wondered if they were just provocateurs, I quickly learned that they all lived a life of deep artistic commitment and integrity. At the same time that they were building up the secret apartment, they spent their free time doing artistic charity — volunteering at local children’s hospitals, teaching art at schools, or creating massive memorial art pieces for victims of 9/11 and the Oklahoma City Bombing.”
Workman continued, “Making ‘Secret Mall Apartment’ was an absolutely joyful and meaningful experience. I feel privileged to share this incredible tale and bring it to a new audience. Hopefully, the story can resonate further. We all continue to live in the shadows of these larger economic systems. Corporations come and remake our neighborhoods, and we’re forced to adjust to their whims. We all are under the thumb of an increasingly commodified lifestyle, harder and harder to stand up and assert our identity. ‘Secret Mall Apartment’ is a reminder to declare your presence and individuality in the most unlikely and unique ways. It’s also one heck of an incredible story.”
The film premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival, and went on to screen at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival, DOC NYC, and the closing night film of the Newport Film Outdoor Festival. The feature has won nine Grand Jury Awards or Audience Awards during its festival run.
“Secret Mall Apartment” is executive produced by Eisenberg, Allen Altman, Matthew Spain, Ivan Williams, Peter Haberman, Marnie Black, Scott Black, William Nobel, Robbie Kruithoff, Gene Gallerano, Amy Zelnick, and Brad Zelnick. The film is a Wrong Turn Productions and Wildbrush Media production. The distributor is mTuckman Media.
Eisenberg previously told Variety that “Secret Mall Apartment” is an ode to the “purity” of making art for art’s sake.
“As somebody in the arts, I just kept thinking that what they’re doing is so pure, and so perfect,” Eisenberg said of the story. “It’s art for art’s sake. I kind of viewed it from that perspective. My favorite thing to do in my life is, I write plays, I finish my play, and we do a little reading, and it’s my favorite day of the year. And then unfortunately, it gets commodified. And we have to sell tickets, and it becomes this product. And so when I’m watching this movie, I’m just taken away as an artist, the purity of their art and that kind of imagination.”
“Secret Mall Apartment” is first opening on March 21 at the Providence Place Mall, where the story takes place. The film will premiere March 28 at the IFC Center, April 2 at the Drafthouse LA, and will also have a national rollout. Check out the trailer below.
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