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An order to stop work and vacate issued by the city forced film director Charlene Jeter, and other artists who had occupied the Russell Industrial Center, to seek an address elsewhere,.
Charlene is a actor/director/producer and CEO of the Detroit Film Studios which is one of 184 artist installations which occupied the Russell Industrial Building.
The Russell Industrial Center, a facility the city contends is plagued with safety and code violations, illegally allowed artists, antique furniture resale, photography and music studios, a counseling center and fitness space to operate there, city officials said.
While many tenants pushed back, saying it was virtually impossible to leave their spaces under such short notice, about 70 percent of the tenants decided to permanently move out. Charlene was one of them.
In the eleventh hour, the city granted the RIC occupants a reprieve allowing them to keep operating there as long as the building owners continue to work on the long list of mandated repairs. But Charlene complying with city orders had started to move.
Recruiting Friends on social media she hired a truck and loaded up the contents of her studio, uncertain as to where she was going to land, or when. In a photo she is seen in the back end of the loaded truck out of which she was prepared to operate her studio until she had found a new space and signed a new lease.
Despite the uncertainty of her forced predicament, rather than allow this to interrupt her work, she pressed on and continued filming.
As Charlene tells it, “I went through a process of searching online, driving by commercial property and calling realtors (to find her new address).”
Within seven days Charlene had located a home-base. She landed at the Grand Lofts located on West Grand Boulevard, Detroit. Says Charlene, “The new place is a loft on the first floor of The Grand Lofts and I love it.”
“Just got the keys to my new studio…I’m so excited and overwhelmed by emotions. This has not been an easy process. Moving my company within 7 days with the aura of uncertainty surrounding the future of the RIC (Can we come back? For how long? Will the Russell be able to repair pages of failed inspections by March 20th? If not, will we be forced out completely?).
“Needless to say making the decision to relocate was difficult…but I’m glad that I’ve decided to move on. The future of Detroit Film Studio is wonderful and I can’t wait to start making movies here at our new home in Detroit.”
Although it took her about a week to find her new address, Charlene did not interrupt her latest production “Love Espionage- Spy Revenge.” Instead she continued filming.
To follow Charlene Jeter