The Carl Craig documentary finally played in Detroit

Desire: The Carl Craig Story had its Detroit premiere on May 22, 2025, at Newlab inside Michigan Central. The screening was presented by Michigan Central during the week of the 25th Movement festival, the Memorial Day weekend event Craig helped start as a co-founder of the Detroit Electronic Music Festival in 2000. The premiere fell on Craig's birthday, and an encore screening followed the next evening.

Detroit got the film last. Directed by Jean-Cosme Delaloye, the 90-minute documentary had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival in New York in June 2024, then opened across the UK earlier in May 2025, including an IMAX run. The US theatrical release came later, in September 2025. That sequence, recognized elsewhere first and at home last, is a pattern Craig knows well and one the film leans into rather than hides.

Delaloye began filming Craig at Movement in 2022 and followed him for roughly two years, from Detroit studios to a museum installation in Los Angeles. The film draws in family, collaborators, and peers, with appearances from figures including Moodymann, DJ Minx, and Laurent Garnier. It traces Craig's arc through the city's own decline and recovery, from early Planet E work to larger orchestral projects, without smoothing over the harder chapters.

Speaking with the Detroit Free Press around the premiere, Craig said the scale of the rollout caught him off guard. "My career is one where I do something and it takes a while before people get it," he told the paper. "So when they told me the amount of screens showing this, it kind of blew my mind."

The timing of the Detroit screening was no accident. Two nights later, Craig closed Movement's Saturday on the Stargate Stage, going back to back with Moodymann, with Mike Banks at the booth as well. The premiere and the festival set bracketed the same weekend, and both ended with Craig still at work.

Desire: The Carl Craig Story continues its festival and theatrical run through the film's distributors. The Planet E soundtrack is out now.