The American punk rock group Redd Kross deriving their
name from the most infamous scene from the film The Exorcist first emerged
in 1978 amid the rise of the hardcore punk scene chronicled in Penelope Spheeris’
The Decline of Western Civilization.
Founded by brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald as Red Cross, performing
at the ages of 11 and 14 respectively, the group was notable for opening for
punk rock group Black Flag and featuring future Circle Jerks guitarist
Greg Hetson and John Stielow on drums.
Following the release of their debut album Born Innocent, the
group was threatened with legal action over the name by the International Red
Cross and promptly changed it to Redd Kross before going on to make
eight more albums over the next fifty years.
Though the band itself featured a constant changeover of musicians transitioning
in and out of the group, its primary founders Jeff and Steve McDonald remained
together through all these years and continue to record and release music.
Enter Friends television writer turned first-time
documentary filmmaker Andrew Reich, an avowed longtime superfan who grew up
with the band when he was attending live hardcore punk rock shows as a kid. Someone who absorbed their music from top to
bottom up through the 1990s when he finally got to see them perform live, Reich
considered Redd Kross to be among the most important bands to emerge
from Los Angeles albeit being overshadowed by The Beach Boys.
Sometime around 2015, Reich overheard a
podcast on Damian Abraham’s Turned Out a Punk podcast where he recounted
a story where an older woman, a mainstay at punk rock shows, abducted Steve
McDonald in an underage sexual relationship when he was only 13. Disappearing from home for three months
following a private investigation which tracked them down and ended the relationship,
the story was enough to prompt Reich to try and make a documentary film on the
subject. After more than ten years of
research, meeting up with band founders themselves and earning their blessing, Born
Innocent: The Redd Kross Story moved forward.
Much like
the band White Flag, brilliantly chronicled in the documentary The Secret Lives of Bill Bartell, the group had its genesis in the hardcore
punk rock scene but evolved into something far different from its roots. A crowdfunded labor of love co-produced by
Reich and featuring crisp digital cinematography by Steve Appleford with
archival footage integrated together by Erin Elders, Born Innocent: The Redd
Kross Story is most certainly the definitive screen account of the band and
indelible contribution to the reemerging discourse surrounding the late 1970s/early
1980s hardcore punk rock scene.
--Andrew Kotwicki