The collection of songs by the musicians HAHA Mart, Chayse Porter and Baker Knight were easy on the ears. The hope is to have Rural King open in a year. You have been working in the Birmingham area for a while now. It's a both a story of a mall as a physical entity but also as a reference point in the lives of all these invdividuals and their personal stories, from the Zookeeper turnded security and custodian, to Robin the retiring florist, and young starry-eyed interracial couple, the old men playing dominos, the tattooed hair stylist who wants to escape Jasper to do great things in her life. Documentaries like "Jasper Mall" are why I initially started getting into watching docs. [3] As a result, foot traffic has declined and the parking lot is often barren. In addition to its beauty, the mall is a symbol of the American dream, but it eventually succumbs to the ebbs and flows of time. Jasper City Council approves agreement between city, Rural King for Jasper Mall location, Talladega woman killed in 2-vehicle crash, Arrest made in Tuscaloosa shooting; 1 injured, Senator Tuberville pushes for bill on institutional child abuse, Regional Airlines Dealing With Pilot Shortages, Homicide in Center Point, shooting in Birmingham believed to be connected. Jasper Mall is still open, amazingly, after watching this film. Upon this event, the mall effectively has two anchor stores, Belk Department Store and Dunham's Sports. Required fields are marked *. Jasper Mall is a 2020 American documentary film directed by Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb. Cinematography, editing and musical score were on point. Scroll on for a peek inside some abandoned malls and the sad histories of their demise. Added to that, the couple are not really employees nor persistent shoppers at the mall. . Jewelry Doctor. WBHM's Andrew Yeager spoke with Thomason. Another thing that the film doesn't point out is how many times, the mall went through foreclosure and who currently owns it. After contacting Western Union Financial Services, Inc. and if you still have an unresolved complaint regarding the company's money transmission services, please contact the Texas Department . JASPER, Ala. David Gifford, a preacher from Hamilton, Alabama (population: 6,800), drives nearly an hour to Jasper (population: 14,000) to shop at the JCPenney at the mall here in the northern . On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 88% based on eight reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress, The Unsettling Reality Of Fitting Room Cameras In Malls, The Daraz Mall: A Popular Shopping Destination In The Heart Of The City, Different Ways To Get To Ontario Mills Mall, Yorkdale Shopping Centre: Torontos Premier Retail Destination, Is Your Shop In A Mall Profitable? It would had been nice to know that one of the reasons why the mall in Jasper, Alabama is having trouble keeping afloat is the fact that it's located on US 78 North, far away enough from big cities like Birmingham and even further east from its prime city. It captures the moments and then some. ALSO SEE: Vintage shoe stores: See what shoe shopping really used to be like. You really feel as if you know these people. Get news alerts in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store or subscribe to our email newsletter here. A generation ago the mall was THE place to be. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. [2] The only remaining anchor store is Belk and according to one shopper, "If Belk goes, we are in deep woo-woo. Wed get there. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, small businesses will account for 33.3% of all new jobs by 2021. It revolves around the Jasper Mall, a dying mall in Jasper, Alabama. The new developer intends to convert the space into a community that includes homes, offices and a grocery store. If you have specific information about Mike and Jasper Mall, you may be able to find an answer to this question by conducting a simple online search. May 23, 2021 by Nicholas Price. That allows us to focus on those areas and then meet in the middle with discussion / collaboration. is jasper mall in alabama still open. Its called Jasper Mall and is named for the shopping center in Walker County, northwest of Birmingham. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Glittering paeans to retail in an era where a prosperous American middle class had plenty of money to spend, and mall store pricing was still competitive. Our business was started in 1973 in our family's hometown, Fayette, AL. For now, though, most of these abandoned malls exist as ghost towns, if they continue to exist at all. Belk in Jasper Mall shopping details. We work well together because we excel in different areas. Some people even chose to move their business to another location by the end of the film. Beautifully photographed and lovely interviews. What we know about Rural King is that they will probably draw from the county contiguous to Walker county and even beyond in a major draw. Jasper is located about 40 miles outside Birmingham, Alabama. To add onto the mess, the shopping center itself sits in a predominately rural mountainous forest area with barely any locals due to the location's violent tornado patterns and borderline economic poverty problems. This doc creates heroes and people you want to root for just by showing their day to day lives. If you have an opportunity for Southern creatives and want tobe included in our newsletter write us at [email protected]. Seeing the Jasper Mall for the first time: I was driving back from Nashville one day and saw that the Jasper Mall was right there and just pulled off and walked around for a little while and was immediately taken by how it looked. There is held out hope that somehow with the right store, department, or entertainment, the glory days will come back. It is a touching story of the mall manager, who used to keep wildlife in Australia, to the older white men who like to play dominoes at the mall. This documentary is not quite good enough to be putting on your shopping list. By the late 90s, the mall began to falter. Caption: Megan Scarano reports on a potential new . Interior view of Jasper Mall, December 2016, "Four businesses announce closures in Jasper", "Sharp lands retail tenants for Jasper, Northport", "Sharp Realty plans Jasper Mall expansion", "Sears and Kmart are closing more stores see if your store is on the list", "See if your J.C. Penney store is among 138 closures", "Slamdance 2020: Documentary JASPER MALL Gets a Teaser Trailer", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jasper_Mall&oldid=1134384682, This page was last edited on 18 January 2023, at 12:05. All rights reserved. Its a community on the brink of disappearance, and yet around every corner, there exists a strange beauty and a new kind of Americana that reflects the unique, touching, and frequently hilarious realities of the shopping mall in the internet age. Mayor David OMary said it is difficult to find a retail that would take up the 90,000 square feet, but perfect for Rural King. Outside at daybreak, a post-apocalyptic barren parking lot. It hadnt been remodeled since it opened. The building was completely demolished by 2017, and like salt in the wound Amazon immediately built a new distribution center on the site. There is something simple and poetic about the plight of middle class America, and this puts it into portrait form. The various causes of the mall's decline emerge throughout the documentary. The Jasper Mall is still open and ready to serve shoppers in the area. Jasper Mall opened in August 1981. The mall is a 350,000 square feet and was originally developed by the Simmons family along with developer George Ewing from Georgia. Anyone wanting a stirring and nostalgic trip down memory lane that becomes a real slightly sad real world story, this is a perfect doc. Were just not sure when thatll happen again. That moment felt awkwardly staged reenactment as they look like they secretly have no clue why they agreed to meet there rather than at home texting. Thomason and Whitcomb capture 2018 through the perspective of . 300 Highway 78 E, Jasper, AL, United States, Alabama. Because the leasing would be centralized, businesses could reside near each other more strategically than what usually occurred in a typical downtown proper. And many local and independent shops have better selection of items than mall stores. Seriously, you don't need to live in NY and LA to make films, especially now. It really does symbolic representative, this dying mall's detachment with the more common younger online driven patrons. Another feature but can't say what about just yet! Anchor JCPenney moved from downtown to the mall when it opened. The mall is easy to navigate, and the store directory is available online. The absence of youth culture throughout the film is really alarming; seeing how in the 1980s & 1990s, malls would be the ultimate hangout spot for children, while older people were more interested in local ma & pa's downtown stores. The roles had changed here and it's somewhat surreal. Posted 6/17/20. The economic hardships of a once-thriving mall in Jasper, Alabama are highlighted in this film. 7.1K views 8 months ago #deadmall #deadmalls #mallsoft In 2019, filmmakers Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb spent several weeks documenting the stores and people of Jasper Mall. There is no definitive answer to this question as it is unclear who Mike is and where Jasper Mall is located. It moves much of the major traffic away from the mall. . Co-directors Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb spent a year shooting the film. Now that you know, have fun looking around! I could make a very long list, but some that have really stuck with me lately are: "Paris is Burning," "Harlan County, U.S.A.," "Gates of Heaven," "Last Train Home" and Les Blank's "Always for Pleasure" box set. There are great stories here. The concept he had in mind, however, was different from what actually transpired. Filmmakers Bradford Thomas and Brett Whitcomb craft a genuinely engaging documentary by taking the viewer on a one-year journey of the mall and the people . So, lets get into exactly what Jasper Mall is and how it came to be where it is today. Once we got old enough to go by ourselves, we'd get dropped off at the mall and spend the entire day there hanging with friends. WBHM's Andrew Yeager spoke with Thomason. A documentary playing at the Sidewalk Film Festival later this month looks at one dying mall here in Alabama. Subscribe to FL1 News Now to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. Frozen Yogurt Shop. Find out more here.