A new documentary about grass-roots unity on Detroit's east side has a red carpet premiere Tuesday night at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The 90-minute film, "Life in Osborn," shows August cleanups and other improvements at and around Osborn High on East Seven Mile Road.

A four-year-old local nonprofit anti-blight group called Life Remodeled led  the project, which it says involved more than 9,500 corporate and community volunteers. They cleared debris in a 4.5-square-mile area, boarded up 472 vacant houses and remodeled some high school students' homes, according to organizers. 

In addition, Life Remodeled and the Osborn Neighborhood Association supported Detroit Public Schools work on a new roof, gym, cafeteria, library and main office at the high school. Pulaski Elementary-Middle School also received a deep cleaning and two new playscapes with volunteer help.  

"Osborn was the most volatile neighborhood that we had invested in to date," Life Remodeled founder and CEO Chris Lambert tells Adrienne Roberts of DBusiness. "But what we ended up discovering were incredibly resilient residents and students in the school and we saw a real story of hope. We look for two things: significant need and radical hope. We really saw radical hope shining in the midst of darkness.”

Lambert, a former Massachusetts seminary student, lives in Detroit with his wife and their two sons.

The film is directed and narrated by Walter V. Marshall of Framed by Grace Films, a Detroit company that earned two Emmy awards last year for "Cody High: A Life Remodeled Project." 

► Tickets for Tuesday's 7 p.m. showing at the Detroit Film Theatre are $10 and can be reserved here. Proceeds benefit Life Remodeled.

Three preview screenings began Friday night at the Bel Air 10 Theater on East Eight Mile Road. "Saw it yesterday. Wow! A film full of hope," Judy Dery of Center Line posts Sunday on Facebook.

It's also booked at the Maple Theater in Bloomfield Township on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. and .at the MJR Westland Grand Digital on Nov. 19, also at 7 p.m. 

DVDs will be available soon, the nonprofit says, and the documentary will be available for download.


Chris Lambert: "Osborn was the most volatile neighborhood that we had invested in." (Facebook photo by Maureen Baugh)

In its earlier project, Life Remodeled says more than 10,000 volunteers contributed to work at and around Cody High in August 2014. They participated in work on a new Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) lab, medical simulation lab, revamping of the home economics room and a synthetic turf football field that allowed the first home games in more than six years.

The volunteers cleared debris, boarded up 254 vacant houses and beautified blocks in the Cody Rouge neighborhood, the group's website says.

Next year it plans to focus on Denby High School and its neighborhood, three miles from the Osborn community.

"We believe by partnering with local residents to remove blight in the surrounding area and create safe and inspirational pathways to the school, we will help build up and sustain a neighborhood that radiates hope to the rest of the city," Lambert says at his group's site.

"Life Remodeled is gaining a reputation as a difference-maker in Detroit, counting more than 250 businesses, churches and community organizations as regular partners."

-- Alan Stamm