Pioneering Detroit techno music producer and DJ Carl Craig is Tribeca-bound

The Tribeca Film Festival (June 5-16, 2024) has officially selected Desire: The Carl Craig Story, the new documentary feature from Jean-Cosme Delaloye (Harley) celebrating the Detroit techno legend to screen in the Festival’s Spotlight+ section.

Desire: The Carl Craig Story follows Carl Craig’s genre-defying career, from his middle-class roots to global acclaim, as the producer faces challenges that could keep him away from the dance floor. The film, which wrapped production in February, will have its world premiere at Tribeca on June 12, 2024, at 8pm at The Indeed Theater at Spring Studios. Tribeca will also host a press and industry screening on June 13 with subsequent Festival public screenings on the 13th and 15th.

Desire: The Carl Craig Story is an intimate portrait of legendary techno producer, DJ and record label founder Carl Craig and an ode to his beloved city, Detroit.  Raised in a middle-class African American family, Carl’s parents fostered his artistic pursuits, even if that meant breaking with his family’s tradition of pursuing higher education. With Detroit’s decline and recovery as a backdrop, “Desire: The Carl Craig Story” follows the career of a musical pioneer whose genre-defying techno music— which was inspired by a wide range of sounds, has been performed to jazz enthusiasts at the Montreux Jazz Festival and adapted for classical auditoriums around the world, including Carnegie Hall. Thirty-five years into his music career, Carl Craig, a leading figure of the second generation of Detroit techno artists, has now been embraced by the visual arts world through his Party / After Party installation, with recent exhibitions at MOCA in Los Angeles and Dia Beacon in New York.  But at the pinnacle of his creative and deejaying success, the musician faces challenges that could ultimately force him to stay away from the dance floor.

The film features artists including Gilles Peterson, Roni Size, Laurent Garnier, DJ Minx, Kenny Larkin, Moritz von Oswald and James Lavelle, who worked with Craig and played a major role in bringing techno and electronic music to the masses over the years.

“Desire” is produced by Dan Wechsler for Switzerland’s Bord Cadre Films and Andreas Roald on behalf of the U.K.’s Sovereign Films. The companies previously collaborated on “Triangle of Sadness.” The film is supported by the Federal Office of Culture (Switzerland) and the regional film fund Cinéforom (Geneva).

Carl Craig is a multi-disciplined visionary whose eclectic tastes and influences all converge into his “main discipline,” Carl Craig. The Detroit pioneer’s lifelong pursuit of independence and self-gratification is the catalyst behind three decades of innovation and achievement within the realm of electronic music.

As the mastermind behind Planet E Communications, Carl conceived and nurtured a platform that preserves his independence while also providing a liberating space for a range of international artists over the last 30 years. Carl’s open-minded approach has led to the release of records that traverse hip-hop, jazz, funk, and more esoteric electronic compositions, purposely avoiding commercial-sounding music.

As a producer and performer, Carl’s history is well documented. Under a variety of aliases—69, Paperclip People, C2, and many more—he has produced six LPs, the most recent being Versus, with his back catalogue including credits on over 600 remixes for a diverse cross-section of electronic music artists from Depeche Mode and Tori Amos to his friends Kenny Larkin and Kevin Saunderson, plus many many more. In 2008, Carl’s tireless remix work was recognized at the Grammys, where he was nominated for his rework of Junior Boys “Like A Child.”

His contribution to global electronic music culture has been vast. Despite widespread critical acclaim and success, he continues to inject his innovative energy into everything he does, establishing a legacy that will stand long after the wheels of his car finally fall off…

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