"Desire: The Carl Craig Story" had its Detroit premiere at Newlab at Michigan Central Station on May 22, 2025. The room was full.
The documentary, directed by Jean-Cosme Delaloye, had already played Tribeca in 2024 and opened in UK theaters earlier in May. Detroit got it last, which is both annoying and fitting. Craig himself has spent most of his career being recognized earlier and louder everywhere else before his home city caught up. The film is about that pattern as much as it is about anything else.
Delaloye spent years shooting this. The footage ranges from early Planet E studio sessions to the symphonic Versus project to the 2001 DEMF dismissal that Craig has mostly stopped talking about in public. What makes the film work is that it does not try to smooth any of it. The dismissal is in there. The long stretch where Craig was not on the Movement lineup is in there. The reconciliation that is still, in some sense, ongoing is in there too.
The Newlab screening landed two days before Craig closed Movement's Saturday night, going back to back with Moodymann with Mike Banks also at the booth. Whoever scheduled the premiere knew what they were doing. The film ends with Craig still working, which is also how the weekend ended.
"Desire: The Carl Craig Story" is available through its UK distributor. The Planet E soundtrack is out now.
