The 2024 documentary film "Secret Mall Apartment," directed by Jeremy Workman, was released on Netflix on Friday. The film recounts the true story of artist Michael Townsend and seven others, many of them former students from the Rhode Island School of Design, who secretly built and lived in a hidden apartment inside the Providence Place mall from 2003 to 2007 as a protest against gentrification and consumer culture. The group was discovered in 2007, and Townsend was charged with trespassing, receiving probation and a lifetime ban from the mall. Originally released in theaters in March 2024, the documentary had been available on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV before its Netflix debut.
The film's arrival on Netflix marks a significant expansion of its audience, as the streaming platform often brings independent documentaries to a much wider viewership. The story matters because it explores the blurred line between art and life, using a real-life covert project to critique urban development, corporate space, and the displacement of artist communities. As noted by critic Alissa Wilkinson in The New York Times, the project's impact continues to reverberate through the lives of the artists and the city of Providence, making the documentary a timely reflection on art as social commentary.