With such an observational style it is easy for this documentary to fall victim to its own banality. But when an exodus is ongoing who is going to come in?

“A Victoria’s Secret is coming!”, a hopeful customer exclaims as a cry for capitalist rescue. There is an endearing sense of loyalty and patriotism from these people, who are witnessing their mall dying but try their best to keep their fingers on its pulse. The very few people who occupy the runtime are just everyday civilians going about their daily lives: a woman gets a spontaneous (and horrific) haircut from her friend, and there are four elderly gentlemen who re-appear over the course of the year, playing dominoes together. This is an observational documentary with Thomason and Whitcomb adopting a passive role in the proceedings they simply use the camera as an objective tool to watch the mall’s inhabitants shuffle zombie-like down empty corridors. In a visual style that evokes video games, we follow closely behind the caretaker as he navigates barren car parks and empty stores branded with sales advertisements – a mall-turned-ghost-town that feels unsettlingly similar to modern-day Chernobyl. Donning military-esque cargo trousers, it is as if he is going into battle for a war he cannot win: the battle for Jasper Mall’s survival. Thomason and Whitcomb’s documentary is told primarily through the perspective of the mall’s caretaker. “Jasper Mall is shrinking by the day.” “A worthless huge space that has gone to waste.” “This place is dying.” Such online obituaries encapsulate the decay and dilapidation that Jasper Mall has faced over the years, with many local reviews mourning the supposed death of their once beloved shopping centre. Such is the focus of JASPER MALL, a documentary made by Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb that chronicles the year in the life of a dying shopping mall in Jasper, Alabama.

Customers are more willing to spend their hard-earned cash from the comfort of their sofas, draped in dressing gowns and slippers, than making the effort to go into a busy town centre for their desired goods. The modern-day shopping mall is a dying breed in today’s digital climate.

Watch jasper mall documentary