Richie Hawtin produces short film on ‘90s Detroit techno culture

Richie Hawtin has produced a new short film based on the “underground techno culture” of Detroit through the 1990s.

The film, which landed via video platform NOWNESS this week, is executive produced by Hawtin with additional soundtracking and music composition from the British-Canadian DJ.

Kids Like Us takes a trip through “the pulsating energy and community of early ‘90s techno culture in Detroit inspired by Richie Hawtin’s Packard Plant event,” according to a synopsis.

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The 9-minute film is directed by Luke Jaden, who “magnifies the community built through the city’s underground techno culture for 35mm”, with a plot that follows a “group of misfits seeking identity and meaning over a night⁠”.

It also traces back to the early beginnings of Hawtin’s Plastikman alias, which he forged in Detroit in the ‘90s, as well as his Spastik events at now-shuttered venue Packard Plant.

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Speaking to Resident Advisor, director Luke Jaden explains: “I felt like the underground techno world is so cinematic and that it deserved to be documented in a truthful way through the stories, music and the visuals.”

“We actually shot the film at an techno party in Detroit and the goal was to make this film feel as real and as authentic as possible to an actual techno party experience," he added.

Check out Kids Like Us here.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Associate Digital Editor, follow her on Twitter