NOWNESS Shorts: Kids Like Us

Luke Jaden and Richie Hawtin take a 35mm trip through the early ‘90s techno culture of Detroit

20 Jun 2025

“I have always been deeply inspired by the early ‘90s underground techno culture in Detroit. I have had some of my most deeply personal profound moments on the dance floor – the underground techno world is so cinematic that it deserved to be documented in a truthful way through the stories, music, and the visuals. The goal was to make this film feel as real and as authentic as possible to an actual techno party.”

Taking a transportive trip to early ‘90s Detroit and the birthplace of techno, writer-director Luke Jaden magnifies the community built through the city’s underground techno culture for 35mm short film Kids Like Us, as a group of misfits seek identity and meaning over the course of a night.

Returning to architect Albert Kahn’s iconic Packard Plant – cemented in Detroit’s early techno scene as the site of underground raves that have gone down in history – the film captures the pounding energy and legacy of a pivotal movement in its beginnings, with Detroit’s abandoned spaces as a home for self-exploration, acceptance and escapism

Soundtracked by electronic musician Richie Hawtin to mark 30 years since his public party at the Packard Plant, and the birth of his Plastikman per.sona, Kids Like Us explores identity, dislocation, and connection through the lens of techno culture, centering a sense of nostalgia for profound moments that brought lost youth together in a time of cultural change.

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