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.Kurutz, Steven (July 26, 2017).
An Ode to Shopping Malls
" ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

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''. Retrieved 2022-09-15
Archive (2022)
/ref>Folk, Kate (July 25, 2018).

" ''

''. Retrieved 2022-09-15
Archive (2022)
/ref>Dan Bell: "Inside America's dead shopping malls"

TED (conference) TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

. TED Foundation. Retrieved 2022-09-15
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''Dead Mall''

Narrated by Bell, the moments chronicled in what Bryan Menegus of ''

Gizmodo ''Gizmodo'' ( ) is a design, technology, science and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton, and runs on the Kinja platform. ''Gizmodo'' also includes the subsite ''io9'', whic ...

'' calls a "hypnotizing tour" throughout a "

post-capitalist Post-capitalism is a state in which the economic systems of the world can no longer be described as forms of capitalism. Various individuals and political ideologies have speculated on what would define such a world. According to classical Marx ...

dystopia landscape of stores and shopping centers that went out of business during the early-to-mid-2010s' so-called "

retail apocalypse A retail apocalypse is the closing of numerous brick-and-mortar retail stores, especially those of large chains worldwide. It began around 2010, and was severely exacerbated by the mandatory closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2017, over ...

".Menegus, Bryan.
Take a Weirdly Hypnotizing Tour of America's Dying Malls
(2017), ''

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G/O Media G/O Media Inc. is an American media holding company that runs ''Gizmodo'', '' Kotaku'', ''Jalopnik'', ''Deadspin'', '' Lifehacker'', ''Jezebel'', ''The Root'', ''The A.V. Club'', ''The Takeout'', ''The Onion'', and ''The Inventory''. History ...

. Retrieved 2022-09-15
Archive (2022)
/ref>Lawrence, Kelsey (Aug. 21, 2019).

" ''

''. Retrieved 2022-09-15
Archive (2022)
/ref>Sanburn Josh (July 20, 2017).
Why the Death of Malls Is About More Than Shopping
" ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', Marc & Lynne Benioff. Retrieved 2022-09-15
Archive (2022)
/ref> These videos received millions of views. Bell employs salvaged commercials, VHS tapes, retro-futuristic imagery and sound, and audio-visual collages and montages, underlying the uneasy themes. Malls featured in Bell's chronicles most notably include

Owings Mills Mall Owings Mills Mall was a shopping mall in Owings Mills, Maryland, United States that hosted 155 stores and eateries, in the Baltimore County, Maryland, community of Owings Mills. It was owned and managed by General Growth Properties (now Brookfi ...

Bristol Mall Bristol Mall was the only regional shopping mall serving Bristol, Virginia. It opened in 1975. Former anchors included Sears, Belk, JCPenney, and a movie theater. With Bristol being the home of country music, long before Knoxville or Nashville, fo ...

Burlington Center Mall Burlington Center was a shopping mall located in Burlington Township, New Jersey. It was built by The Rouse Company of Columbia, Maryland. Its anchors were Macy's, JCPenney, and Sears. The mall closed on January 8, 2018, with only Sears remaini ...

Marley Station Mall Marley Station Mall is an enclosed shopping mall in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Opened in 1987, it was expanded in 1994 and 1996. The mall has 130 stores on 2 floors, a movie theater, and 5 anchor spaces. JCPenney, Macy's, and Golds Gym serve as the ma ...

Voorhees Town Center Voorhees Town Center (formerly Echelon Mall) is a regional shopping mall and a residential area located in Voorhees Township, New Jersey. It was built in 1970 and named after Echelon Airfield which was located where the mall stands today. The ...

Rolling Acres Mall Rolling Acres Mall was a shopping mall located in the Rolling Acres area of Akron, Ohio, United States. Built in 1975, it originally included approximately 21 stores, with Sears as the main anchor store. Later expansions added several more stores ...

Frederick Towne Mall Frederick Towne Mall was a mall located in Frederick, Maryland, United States. The mall opened in 1972 on U.S. Route 40 in Maryland, U.S. Route 40 along the "Golden Mile". It was closed in April 2013, except for two anchor stores, Boscov's and Ho ...

, and Staunton Mall. The intros of episodes in the series often use clips of these videos that have been distorted or exaggerated in a surreal effect. 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: Steven Kurutz of ''The New York Times'' compared the series with its soothing voice-over and retro-synth

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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."

Nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek language, Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", ...

—as noted by some by-gone store owners, viewers, and writer

Gillian Flynn Gillian Schieber Flynn (; born February 24, 1971) is an American author, screenwriter, and producer. She is known for writing the thriller and mystery novels, '' Sharp Objects'' (2006), '' Dark Places'' (2009), and '' Gone Girl'' (2012), which ar ...

,—is also a driving force behind the late 2010s private and public interest in the dead-malls phenomenon because to some people, " twas more than just a store. It was part of the community." 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?"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? ''

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Archive
(2022). Retrieved 2022-09-15.

Work

;Filmography

Personal life

Bell, in his later teens, held various jobs at shopping mall stores: at a

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

, a shoe store, and a leather-goods boutique.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Dan 1977 births Living people Mass media people from Baltimore American documentary filmmakers American gay men 21st-century American LGBT people