This is one of those delightful stories you can’t believe is true but you’re so glad it is.

Rhode Island artist Michael Townsend was part of a loose collective working from old mill buildings in Providence, RI. When the Providence Place Mall was built in 1999, it started a surge of developers knocking down old buildings in the poorer sections. This included where Michael’s mill was based, evicting dozens of artists.

Realising that there was an odd unoccupied void at the top of the mall, Michael and his gang find various ways to get behind the walls and find a small serviceable space hidden away. Over several years they smuggle in thrifted furniture, connect to power, set up a TV and PlayStation and use it as their hang out space. Michael videoed a lot of it on a small low-res digital camera and we see their forays into the mall for bathrooms and supplies and their domesticity in the windowless cinder block space.

It’s partly performance art, partly political activism and Michael is the one most dedicated to the concept. He wants to make it a true home and is in the process of trying to work out how to get mail delivered when their cover is blown.

From this one headline grabbing premise, director Jeremy Workman shows us the world of artists. We see the good work done by Michael and his collective, including tape art in children’s hospitals and to commemorate community tragedies, and we see what happens when activist artists get older and start wanting a real home and the trappings of life that they once ridiculed.

It’s funny and heartwarming and made me want to be more subversively creative.