NOWNESS released "Kids Like Us" on July 5, 2025. The 35mm short runs nine minutes and was executive produced by Richie Hawtin, directed by Luke Jaden.
The film is set at a Detroit techno party in the mid-90s. That is the whole plot. A group of kids goes to a warehouse, the music starts, and the camera spends nine minutes watching what that looked like before anyone was filming it on their phone because there were no phones. Hawtin, who released "Spastik" in 1993 and built the Plastikman project into one of techno's defining legacies, spent 30 years in that scene before the anniversary of the track prompted the film.
Shooting on 35mm was the right call. The grain does most of the emotional work. A video shot in 4K of the same scene would read as a recreation. The 35mm version reads as a memory, which is what the film is trying to be.
"Kids Like Us" is streaming on NOWNESS. The Plastikman catalog is on Minus.
