Written and directed by Jean-Cosme Delaloye, a portrait of techno producer Carl Craig and a love letter to his city of Detroit, exploring the vast backdrop of artists and venues who played a part in the rise of Craig’s massive, genre-defying career. Featuring: Laurent Garnier, Gilles Peterson and more.
There are some documentaries that you can go into knowing nothing about the subject and having no prior interest in it and it still works but it feels like with Desire: The Carl Craig Story, viewers who are already techno fans or fans of the man himself will get more out of it. It comes across as not just a love letter to Detroit but to Carl Craig, celebrating his achievements and influence. The drawback is it feels less like an exploration of his path to success and more a simple outpouring of admiration.
Part of the issue is that it takes a personal perspective rather than an objective one. It feels as though it needed to take a step back, look at the wider view and delve more deeply into the different factors that led to Craig’s success. The style is akin to chatting with a friend and while that can be a great choice for some, it doesn’t work very well here. There’s still some interesting information to be learnt but the flow and tone can be quite slow, and the delivery can be lethargic at times.
It means that Desire: The Carl Craig Story can struggle to build a bigger, infectious energy, which is quite surprising given the typical intensity which goes along with genres like techno and blues. Although it is a lovely example of how genres can intersect and how inspiration can be found in unexpected, obscure places. It’s especially interesting to see the generosity of artists and how they’re excited to see their work in the hands of others and sampled into something new. As well as the documentary celebrating the creativity and imagination that went into creating the work Craig does.
Desire: The Carl Craig Story portrays lovingly the impact he has had on generations of artists and how innovative his work was. It’s an interesting story to see the cross sections of different genres, ages and countries, and how he brought together people from all over the world. However, it’s lacking in style and moves slowly, there are also a fair number of references which will have more impact to existing fans than people going in with no prior knowledge. It’s perhaps a touch too niche for the wider audience.
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