Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcwDoLuo1QU

Born Innocent makes the case for Redd Kross as the seminal West Coast
band of the last half century. Formed in 1978 by brothers Jeff and
Steve McDonald, and still actively playing and recording today, Redd
Kross are the ultimate rock and roll lifers. They have influenced
independent music in ways that beg to be acknowledged. From inventing
Beach Punk to influencing the Grunge and Hair Metal movements, Redd
Kross have maintained the highest level of musical integrity,
originality and quality for over forty years. They are the
underappreciated link between countless threads of Los Angeles rock.
The band that connects Black Flag to The Partridge Family, The
Runaways to The Cowsills Seeds, The Go-Go’s to The Red Hot Chili
Peppers. Born Innocent will introduce a wider audience to two of the
coolest people alive. The McDonald Brothers embody Southern
California, rock and roll, and what it means to be an artist.

Telling the story of Jeff and Steve McDonald is a way of telling the
story of Los Angeles from the late 70’s onwards. As the band was
beginning in their garage, their neighborhood was being razed all
around them to make way for one of the freeways that accompanied Los
Angeles’s expanding population. That was just the first of the
transformations they lived through. They have seen many versions of
Los Angeles come and go, and they have incredible stories to tell from
each one, with their Zelig-like ability to always be at the cutting
edge of where the action was. Unlike other famous, feuding brother
teams like Ray and Dave Davies of The Kinks, or Noel and Liam
Gallagher of Oasis, Jeff and Steve have kept their collaboration going
for four decades. That doesn’t mean it’s all been smooth sailing.
Early on, Jeff saw a selling point in having his pre-teen brother as
bass player in the band. But his success at breaking into the
burgeoning punk scene inadvertently led to Steve being abducted at age
12 by a 24 year old woman he was sexually involved with. The
interviews with Jeff and Steve in Born Innocent have them examine
their past in a way they haven’t previously. Jeff has always been the
creative visionary, pulling Steve along wherever that vision has led.
Steve, the younger brother, has had to be the responsible one, keeping
the band on course through countless lineup changes. The film tracks
how the band has managed and made use of those tensions.