‘Secret Mall Apartment’ has been embraced by New Englanders as our own ‘quirky’ folk legend

A year after its Somerville premiere, the Jesse Eisenberg-produced doc returns as part of a national release on April 11-17. We caught up with the director.

Colin Bliss and Greta Scheing in the secret apartment. Michael Townsend photo

April 12, 2025

7 minutes to read

In 2019, Jeremy Workman was filming a documentary in Athens, Greece, when tape art caught his eye.

“This building was covered in tape art. I was like, “What the hell is this? This is wild. Sunsets and unicorns and all kinds of visual play covered the walls,” Workman tells me in our recent phone interview.

He sought out the tape artist. It was Holden native Michael Townsend.

The two got to talking. Workman, a New Yorker, couldn’t believe what he heard.

Here in southern New England, this tale is local folklore. An urban legend but true: In 2003, eight artists moved into the Providence Place Mall. They’d discovered an empty 750 square-foot loft space. They hauled up furniture — a couch, a PlayStation, TV, waffle-maker. Hauled up two tons of cinder blocks from an apartment wall.

In 2007, mall security discovered the apartment. Townsend was caught and banned. He named no names.

“I thought he was punking me,” Workman tells me. But Townsend had footage. Tons of it.

And the seed for Workman’s doc “Secret Mall Apartment” was planted.

Later, Workman showed some raw doc footage to Jesse Eisenberg, whom he had worked with before. And Eisenberg couldn’t believe what he saw. He knew that mall.

When he was working on “The Miseducation of Charlie Banks” (2007), Eisenberg was housed at The 903 condos, right by Providence Place. In fact, Eisenberg lived there around the time “The Mall Eight,” as Workman’s dubbed them, lived just yards away. And he wanted in.

In 2024, “Secret Mall Apartment” — a film by Workman, executive produced by Eisenberg — held its New England premiere at Somerville Theatre, as part of the Independent Film Festival Boston.

Now it comes full circle: The film screens at Somerville Theatre from April 11-17 as part of a national theatrical release.

Providence-based tape artist of the hour Townsend — currently working with middle and elementary schools north of Boston, from Wayland to Acton — hosted a Q&A on April 11. On April 12, Townsend will be joined by Workman for a Q&A after the 7 p.m. screening. Bonus: The couch will be there this week for pics and posts. #MallCouch.

I, like many in these parts, have all but grown up with this tale. I was hooked on the 2018 99 Percent Invisible podcast about it. And I was gripped by Workman’s doc. It’s no college kid high-jinx romp about living in a mall. Exactly what it’s about was “shape-shifting” for Workman.

What was the mall apartment? A dada art piece? A middle finger to gentrification? A club house? A prank? All of the above? That’s what he set out to find.

Gentrification was coming. Artists say in the doc they saw encroachment on their beloved Eagle Square, an area of old mills. At its center, Fort Thunder, described by ArtForum as “a decrepit, junk-filled warehouse in Providence…for a particular breed of pilgrim, a holy site—mecca for a hyperpsychedelic art of visual and aural excess.”

Musician Brian Chippendale says of Eagle Square in the film, a developer came in. “People started getting kicked out.”

When Eisenberg went on “The Tonight Show” last week to promote the doc’s national release by pretending to have lived under Jimmy Fallon’s desk for years, it perhaps landed best with us southern New Englanders old enough to remember the early aughts.

“People in New England have embraced this story as their own, from New Hampshire to Connecticut,” Townsend tells me. “New England viewers are seeing it as: ‘This is our story, and it’s bonkers and crazy and fun, but it really has special meaning to us.”

The national release sees screening currently from Seattle to New York City, Austin to Los Angeles.

When it screened at the Providence Place Mall on March 21, Michael was there. Yup, he’s been unbanned. (I asked.)

It’s screening locally at more than a dozen Massachusetts theaters — including Lexington, Foxboro, West Newton, and Worcester — as well as spots in New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and Rhody.

I called Workman — he was in LA for a screening of this film at the time— to talk about the genesis of the movie, New England’s embracement of their own “quirky” legend, Townsend’s “undramatic” return to the mall and more.

I first interviewed you about this film back when it premiered in Somerville in ’24. I love that we’ve come full-circle. What’s the reaction you’ve gotten this past year?

It’s been incredible. It’s twofold. One: This is a really special story for New Englanders. There’s a reason why this was a legendary story, why it hung on as folklore for so many years.

It’s also been really interesting to see how, when we’ve shown it to other cities that have no connection to this — whether it’s Pittsburgh, Columbus, or San Francisco — they’re like, “Oh, we can relate to this, this kind of corporate development.” “I live in Springfield, Missouri but we feel the same thing here.”

This all came together when you were in Greece filming a documentary about New Hampshire native Lily Hevish.

I was filming Lily for “Lily Topples the World” in Greece. She was doing a crazy domino-toppling-artwork with the creator of the Rubik’s Cube, Ernő Rubik — this 80-year-old Hungarian guy.

Wow. That’s awesome.

[laughs] I know. I was stunned at this tape art, and sought out the artist. Michael told me about his story; he showed me footage — I couldn’t believe what I saw. I made a real effort to convince him and the others to finally do a documentary. It wasn’t easy. They’re all artists. They love the mystique. Bringing it public was not a dynamic they were used to. But they realized: This is a really great story, and there’s so much more to it.

The 99% Invisible podcast was already out at that point.

Right, it was the only thing they’d ever done. It wasn’t all of them, just Michael. Maybe Michael was starting to get that itch to tell his story.

Two things are interesting about meeting him in Greece. One: he saw me in production, literally watching me make a movie. I think that gave him a real sense of how I work. Also, I met him as a tape artist. Not the guy who lived in the mall. I saw him as this artist first, prankster second.

True. You told me you saw this story “as a Trojan horse.”

I love this idea of people going into the film through one door, exiting through another. Going in, of course, you want to hear how they did it: “Oh my god, what a prank, they lived in a mall!” That New York Post-side of the story. But after the film, you might think: “I didn’t expect this movie to go to these places. I didn’t expect to feel these emotions.”

Ultimately, what did you personally end up seeing it as?

It was shape-shifting. I think a viewer feels that, too. You watch this and go: “It’s a middle finger to gentrification. Their studio area got demolished, and they thought, ‘Let’s go live in the mall. F— you.”

Suddenly it starts morphing. It becomes this treehouse for the artists who are deep thinkers doing incredible work. Then it morphs again. It becomes “Oh, this space becomes artwork unto itself, this elaborate dada inside-joke.”

That shifting informed my approach, because I realized the movie needs to be always evolving. It has to evolve the same way the apartment evolved.

It encompasses a lot of different things for me, and I think for viewers. For some viewers, it’s a stance against gentrification. Also, they’re artists: they’re turning their lives into art. There’s other times I think: this is an incredible prank. It’s funny, and they’re leaning into the bit.

Michael was at the mall when it premiered in Providence on March 21. He was unbanned for good.

Yeah, the mall has changed ownership. It fell on some hard times, they were in receivership, a new group came on board. Their agenda was like: This mall should embrace this story as Providence lore. We want to be a part of it and not wet blankets. We were thrilled. Over the course of the weekend, there was such demand that eight screenings turned into 24. They had thousands of people come to the mall.

Did you walk in with Michael when he entered for the first time?

His first time back was very undramatic. There was no fanfare. I used to joke that when they unbanned him, we’d have a parade. I just turned over and looked, and was like, “Oh, Michael’s here.”

[laughs] You told me Eisenberg initially got involved from his personal connection to staying near the mall.

Jesse’s been incredible. Everybody’s like, “Oh, he just put his name on it, and he doesn’t do anything” and it’s literally the opposite. He was at four Q&As last weekend in New York City. And this is somebody who’s in production directing his new $10 million musical with Julianne Moore [yet untitled, per Deadline.]

He had a busy awards season, too, “A Real Pain,” which he wrote/directed/produced and starred in. Kieran Culkin won an Oscar for it.

He’s so busy. But he loves this movie so much.

He was just on “The Tonight Show” pretending he’d been secretly living under Fallon’s desk. Was that his idea?

I think it was their idea. Once somebody pitched it, Jesse just was: we got to turn this into this incredible bit. He was in the writers’ room, working with them.

What feedback did you get at the first Somerville show? Do a lot of people in Boston connect with this?

Oh, god, so many people in Boston connect with this. First of all, Providence is like the younger, less-recognized sister city of Boston. Most people in Boston know this story— they grew up with this story, or remember this story. Everyone in Boston has either been to that mall or at least driven by that mall. It’s right down Rt. 95. For Boston, this is a link to that quirky, unique side of New England.

Interview has been edited and condensed.

Lauren Daley is a freelance culture writer and regular Boston.com contributor. She can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1. Read more stories on Facebook here.