TEDxMidAtlantic
Dan Bell: Inside America's dead shopping malls
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What happens when a mall falls into ruin? Filmmaker Dan Bell guides us through abandoned monoliths of merchandise, providing a surprisingly funny and lyrical commentary on consumerism, youth culture and the inspiration we can find in decay.
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
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In the last couple of years,
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I have produced what I call
"The Dead Mall Series,"
"The Dead Mall Series,"
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32 short films and counting
about dead malls.
about dead malls.
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Now, for those of you who are
not familiar with what a dead mall is,
not familiar with what a dead mall is,
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it's basically a shopping mall
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that has fallen into hard times.
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So it either has few shops
and fewer shoppers,
and fewer shoppers,
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or it's abandoned and crumbling into ruin.
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No sale at Penny's.
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(Laughter)
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I started producing this series
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in early 2015
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after going through
kind of a dark period in my life
kind of a dark period in my life
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where I just didn't want
to create films anymore.
to create films anymore.
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I put my camera away
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and I just stopped.
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So in 2015, I decided to make
a short film about the Owings Mills Mall.
a short film about the Owings Mills Mall.
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Owings Mills Mall opened in 1986.
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I should know because
I was there on opening day.
I was there on opening day.
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I was there with my family,
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along with every other
family in Baltimore,
family in Baltimore,
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and you had to drive around
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for 45 minutes
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just to find a parking spot.
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So if you can imagine,
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that's not happening at the malls today.
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My first mall job that I had as a teenager
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was at a sporting goods store
called Herman's World of Sports.
called Herman's World of Sports.
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Maybe you remember.
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(Singing) Herman's World of Sports.
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You guys remember that?
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(Laughter)
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Yeah, so I worked in a lady's shoe store.
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I worked in a leather goods store,
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and I also worked in a video store,
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and not being one who was
very fond of the retail arts --
very fond of the retail arts --
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(Laughter)
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I got fired from every single job.
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(Laughter)
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In between these low-paying retail jobs,
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I did what any normal teenager did
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in the 1990s.
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I shoplifted.
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I'm just kidding.
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I hung out with my friends at the mall.
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(Laughter)
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Everyone's like, "Oh my God,
what kind of talk is this?"
what kind of talk is this?"
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(Laughter)
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Hanging out at the mall could be fun,
but it could be really lame, too,
but it could be really lame, too,
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like sharing a cigarette
with a 40-year-old unemployed mall rat
with a 40-year-old unemployed mall rat
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who has put on
black lipstick for the night
black lipstick for the night
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while you're on your break
from your crappy minimum wage job.
from your crappy minimum wage job.
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As I stand here today,
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Owings Mills has been gutted
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and it's ready for the wrecking ball.
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The last time I was there,
it was in the evening,
it was in the evening,
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and it was about three days
before they closed the mall for good.
before they closed the mall for good.
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And you kind of felt --
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they never announced the mall was closing,
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but you had this sort of feeling,
this ominous feeling,
this ominous feeling,
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that something big was going to happen,
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like it was the end of the road.
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It was a very creepy walk
through the mall.
through the mall.
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Let me show you.
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(Music)
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So when I started producing
"The Dead Mall Series,"
"The Dead Mall Series,"
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I put the videos up onto YouTube,
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and while I thought they were interesting,
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frankly I didn't think others
would share the enthusiasm
would share the enthusiasm
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for such a drab and depressing topic.
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But apparently I was wrong,
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because a lot of people
started to comment.
started to comment.
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And at first the comments were like --
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basically like, "Oh my God,
that's the mall from my childhood.
that's the mall from my childhood.
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What happened?"
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And then I would get comments
from people who were like,
from people who were like,
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"There's a dead mall in my town.
You should come and film it."
You should come and film it."
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So I started to travel around
the mid-Atlantic region
the mid-Atlantic region
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filming these dead malls.
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Some were open.
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Some were abandoned.
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It was kind of always hard
to get into the ones that were abandoned,
to get into the ones that were abandoned,
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but I somehow always found a way in.
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(Laughter)
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The malls that are still open,
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they always do this weird thing --
like the dead malls.
like the dead malls.
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They'll have three stores left,
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but they try to spruce it up
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to make it appear
like things are on the up-and-up.
like things are on the up-and-up.
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For example,
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you'll have an empty store
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and they bring the gate down.
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So at Owings Mills, for example,
they put this tarp over the gate.
they put this tarp over the gate.
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Right?
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And it's got a stock photo
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of a woman who is so happy
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and she's holding a blouse,
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and she's like --
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(Laughter)
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And then there's a guy
standing next to her, with, like,
standing next to her, with, like,
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an espresso cup, and he's like --
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(Laughter)
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And it says, "What brings you today?"
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(Laughter)
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I wanted to be scared and depressed.
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Thank you.
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So the comments just kept pouring in
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on the videos,
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from all over the country,
and then all over the world.
and then all over the world.
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And I started to think,
this could really be something,
this could really be something,
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but I had to get creative,
because I'm like,
because I'm like,
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how long are people going to sit and watch
me waddling through an empty mall?
me waddling through an empty mall?
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(Laughter)
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So the original episodes
I filmed with an iPhone.
I filmed with an iPhone.
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So I'd walk through the mall
with an iPhone, and, you know.
with an iPhone, and, you know.
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Like that.
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(Laughter)
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And security -- because malls,
they don't like photography --
they don't like photography --
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so the security would come up and be like,
"Put that away," and I'm like, "OK."
"Put that away," and I'm like, "OK."
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So I had to get creative and sneaky,
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so I started using a hidden camera
and different techniques
and different techniques
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to get the footage that I needed,
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and basically what I wanted to do
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was make the video
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like it was a first-person experience,
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like you are sitting --
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put your headphones on
watching the screen --
watching the screen --
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it's like, you're there in the video,
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like a video game, basically.
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I also started to use music,
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collaborating with artists
who create music called vaporwave.
who create music called vaporwave.
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And vaporwave is a music genre
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that emerged in the early 2010s
among internet communities.
among internet communities.
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Here's an example.
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(Music)
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That's by an artist named Disconscious
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from an album he did
called "Hologram Plaza."
called "Hologram Plaza."
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So if you look that up,
you can hear more of those tunes.
you can hear more of those tunes.
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Vaporwave is more than an art form.
It's like a movement.
It's like a movement.
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It's nihilistic, it's angsty,
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but it's somehow comforting.
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The whole aesthetic is a way of dealing
with things you can't do anything about,
with things you can't do anything about,
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like no jobs, or sitting in your parents'
basement eating ramen noodles.
basement eating ramen noodles.
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Vaporwave came out of this generation's
desire to express their hopelessness,
desire to express their hopelessness,
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the same way that
the pre-internet generation did
the pre-internet generation did
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sitting around in the food court.
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One of my favorite malls
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I've been to
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is in Corpus Christi,
and it's called the Sunrise Mall.
and it's called the Sunrise Mall.
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When I was a kid,
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my favorite thing to do was watch movies,
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and I used to watch movies
over and over and over again.
over and over and over again.
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And one of my favorite films
was "The Legend of Billie Jean."
was "The Legend of Billie Jean."
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Now, for those of you who have seen
"The Legend of Billie Jean,"
"The Legend of Billie Jean,"
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you'll know that it's a great film.
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I love it.
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And Helen Slater and Christian Slater --
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and if you didn't know,
they are not related.
they are not related.
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Many people thought that they
were brother and sister. They're not.
were brother and sister. They're not.
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But anyway, Sunrise Mall was used
in the film as a filming location.
in the film as a filming location.
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The mall is exactly the same
as it was in 1984.
as it was in 1984.
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We're talking 32 years later.
Let me show you.
Let me show you.
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(Video) Dan Bell: And here's Billie Jean
running across the fountain,
running across the fountain,
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being chased by Hubie Pyatt's friends.
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And she jumps over here.
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And you can see the shot right here
is what it looks like today.
is what it looks like today.
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It's pretty incredible.
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I mean, honestly, it's exactly the same.
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And there they are
falling in the fountain,
falling in the fountain,
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and she runs up the stairs.
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This is a nice shot
of the whole thing here.
of the whole thing here.
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Dan Bell: I love that so much.
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(Laughter)
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I always think in my head,
if I owned a dead mall --
if I owned a dead mall --
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why don't they embrace their vintage look?
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Put in a bar,
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like, put vegan food in the food court
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and invite millennials and hipsters
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to come and drink and eat,
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and I guarantee you within three weeks
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H&M and Levi's will be banging
on the door trying to get space.
on the door trying to get space.
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I don't know why they don't do this,
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but apparently,
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it's only in my mind, it goes all day.
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(Laughter)
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Anyway, in closing --
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(Laughter)
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When they first asked me to do this talk,
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I said,
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"Do you have the right person?"
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(Laughter)
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These talks are supposed
to be kind of inspiring and --
to be kind of inspiring and --
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(Laughter)
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I remembered something, though.
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I put my camera down
three or four years ago,
three or four years ago,
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and it took going to these malls
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for me to be inspired again.
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And to see my audience
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and people from all over the world
writing me and saying,
writing me and saying,
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"God, I love your videos,"
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is incredible.
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I don't know how to even explain it,
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as an artist,
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how fulfilling that is.
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If you would have told me a year ago
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that I would be standing on this stage
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talking to all of you wonderful people,
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I would have never believed it.
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I am humbled
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and so appreciative.
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Thank you very much.
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(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dan Bell - FilmmakerDan Bell films urban decay.
Why you should listen
Dan Bell's narrative films and documentaries have screened at national and international film festivals. His critically acclaimed documentary web-shows, "Dead Mall Series" and "Dead Motel Series" have a devoted fan base worldwide. Bell new show, "Another Dirty Room," explores nasty hotel rooms. His documentary feature, "Margie and Scott" is slated for release in spring of 2017.
Dan Bell | Speaker | TED.com