Edmonton International Film Festival 2008

1970s Los Angeles—Nihilist Philosophy, Glam Rock, Drugs, Booze, Closeted Homosexuality, Dianetics, a Yen for Rock and Roll Immortality—a convergence that shaped the short, self-destructive life of Jan Paul Beahm, a fatherless boy with an alcoholic mother and an older brother who died of a drug-overdose—a kid who reinvented himself coming out of a high school for outcasts, as the one and only DARBY CRASH, the legendary lead singer of the seminal Los Angeles Punk band, The Germs.

Shane West ("ER", LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN), Bijou Phillips (CHOKE, BULLY, BLACK AND WHITE), Rick Gonzalez (OLD SCHOOL, COACH CARTER) and Noah Segan (BRICK, CHAIN LETTER) star in WHAT WE DO IS SECRET, a biopic that chronicles the rise of The Germs and their charismatic leader Darby Crash, whose image—the contorted, screaming face and death grip on the microphone, has become an icon of the U.S. punk movement and a rapt influence on bands since. Darby’s cultivated punk attitude, resplendent with the hardcore, infamous onstage self-mutilation antics and volatile energy that inspired the band’s mesmerized followers to riot, ultimately banned The Germs from playing every venue in the greater Los Angeles area.

IT WAS A MOVEMENT THAT CHANGED MUSIC. IT WAS MUSIC THAT CHANGED THE WORLD. AND IT ALL STARTED WITH A GERM.

In attendance: Writer/Director Rodger Grossman.