Dan Bell
Born (1977-02-09) February 9, 1977
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Occupations
  • Documentary filmmaker
  • cinematographer
  • presenter
Years active2012–present

Dan Bell (born February 9, 1977) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for the Dead Mall documentary series, cataloging the 2010s urban decay phenomenon of foreclosured shopping malls.[1][2][3]

Dead Mall

For kids of the ’80s especially, dead malls have a very strong allure. We were the last of the free-range kids, roaming around malls, not really buying anything, but just looking. To see all those big looming spaces so empty now — it’s a childhood haunting.

—writer Gillian Flynn[1]

Narrated by Bell, the moments chronicled in what Bryan Menegus of Gizmodo calls a "hypnotizing tour" throughout a "post-capitalist dystopia[n]" landscape of stores and shopping centers that went out of business during the early-to-mid-2010s' so-called "retail apocalypse."[4][5][6][7] These videos received millions of views.[7] Bell employs salvaged commercials, VHS tapes, retro-futuristic imagery and sound, and audio-visual collages and montages, underlying the uneasy themes.[4] Malls featured in Bell's chronicles most notably include Owings Mills Mall,[1] Bristol Mall,[1] Burlington Center Mall,[1] Marley Station Mall,[1] Voorhees Town Center,[1] Rolling Acres Mall,[1] Frederick Towne Mall,[2] and Staunton Mall.[8] The intros of episodes in the series often use clips of these videos that have been distorted or exaggerated in a surreal effect.[9] Bell personally finds the Rolling Acres Mall episode to be the most unnerving, recalling the eerie image of frogs singing out loud in an abandoned mall:

"They were in a pool in the elevator shaft[.] Can you imagine filming this and taking it back to the [1980s] and saying, ‘This is what’s going to happen in 30 years: There’s going to be a frog in the food court’?”[1]

Steven Kurutz of The New York Times compared the series with its soothing voice-over and retro-synth vaporwave music to Michael Galinsky's time-capsule photo book Malls Across America, stating, "they evoke the same fuzzy ’80s nostalgia[,] even as they offer an unsettling visual document of the retail apocalypse that changing consumer habits, e-commerce and economic disparity have wrought."[1] Nostalgia—as noted by some by-gone store owners,[1] viewers,[10] and writer Gillian Flynn,[1]—is also a driving force behind the late 2010s private and public interest in the dead-malls phenomenon because to some people, "[it] was more than just a store. It was part of the community."[6] On the other hand, Bell received some negative reception from shopping mall owners and shareholders, to which he responded, "Malls contact me and are livid they are featured, but the reality is, what are they going to do?"[11]

Work

Filmography
Year Title Director Producer Role Notes
2014–present Dead Mall Series Yes Yes Narrator Documentary, also cinematography
Features shopping malls
2015–present Dead Motel Series Yes Yes Documentary, also cinematography
Features abandoned motels, hotels and resorts
2016–2022 Another Dirty Room Yes Yes Himself Documentary/reality TV
2022 Margie & Scott Yes Yes Documentary

Personal life

Coincidentally, Bell in his later teens held various jobs at shopping mall stores; at a Macy’s, a shoe store, and a leather-goods boutique.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Kurutz, Steven (July 26, 2017). "An Ode to Shopping Malls," The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2022-09-15. Archive (2022)
  2. 1 2 Folk, Kate (July 25, 2018). "Letter of Recommendation: Dead Malls," The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2022-09-15. Archive (2022)
  3. ↑ Dan Bell: "Inside America's dead shopping malls", TED (conference). TED Foundation. Retrieved 2022-09-15. (2022)
  4. 1 2 Menegus, Bryan. "Take a Weirdly Hypnotizing Tour of America's Dying Malls" (2017), Gizmodo, G/O Media. Retrieved 2022-09-15. Archive (2022)
  5. ↑ Mall memories remain for a generation of Roanoke Valley mall rats" (2018), The Roanoke Times, Lee Enterprises Inc. Archive (2022)
  6. 1 2 Lawrence, Kelsey (Aug. 21, 2019). "The Collective Memory of American Shoppers," The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2022-09-15. Archive (2022)
  7. 1 2 Sanburn Josh (July 20, 2017). "Why the Death of Malls Is About More Than Shopping," Time, Marc & Lynne Benioff. Retrieved 2022-09-15. Archive (2022)
  8. ↑ "Staunton Mall featured on dead mall series on YouTube". The News Leader. 2022-02-15. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  9. ↑ DEAD MALL SERIES : The $100 Mall : The Disaster of Pittsburgh Mills, retrieved 2023-03-01
  10. ↑ Weinstein, Janet (November 23, 2018). "'Dead malls': Inside one man's mission to document the beauty of abandoned shopping centers," ABC News, Walt Disney Company. Retrieved 2022-09-15. Archive (2022)
  11. ↑ Cockrell, Debbie (July 18, 2017). ["https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/business/article161881928.html They are capturing the fall of legacy retailers in real time. Is your store next?]" The News Tribune, The McClatchy Company. Archive (2022). Retrieved 2022-09-15.
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