Dan Bell: Inside America's dead shopping malls
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
"The Dead Mall Series,"
about dead malls.
not familiar with what a dead mall is,
and fewer shoppers,
kind of a dark period in my life
to create films anymore.
a short film about the Owings Mills Mall.
I was there on opening day.
family in Baltimore,
called Herman's World of Sports.
very fond of the retail arts --
what kind of talk is this?"
but it could be really lame, too,
with a 40-year-old unemployed mall rat
black lipstick for the night
from your crappy minimum wage job.
it was in the evening,
before they closed the mall for good.
this ominous feeling,
through the mall.
"The Dead Mall Series,"
would share the enthusiasm
started to comment.
that's the mall from my childhood.
from people who were like,
You should come and film it."
the mid-Atlantic region
to get into the ones that were abandoned,
like the dead malls.
like things are on the up-and-up.
they put this tarp over the gate.
standing next to her, with, like,
and then all over the world.
this could really be something,
because I'm like,
me waddling through an empty mall?
I filmed with an iPhone.
with an iPhone, and, you know.
they don't like photography --
"Put that away," and I'm like, "OK."
and different techniques
watching the screen --
who create music called vaporwave.
among internet communities.
called "Hologram Plaza."
you can hear more of those tunes.
It's like a movement.
with things you can't do anything about,
basement eating ramen noodles.
desire to express their hopelessness,
the pre-internet generation did
and it's called the Sunrise Mall.
over and over and over again.
was "The Legend of Billie Jean."
"The Legend of Billie Jean,"
they are not related.
were brother and sister. They're not.
in the film as a filming location.
as it was in 1984.
Let me show you.
running across the fountain,
is what it looks like today.
falling in the fountain,
of the whole thing here.
if I owned a dead mall --
on the door trying to get space.
to be kind of inspiring and --
three or four years ago,
writing me and saying,
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