Opening Night of The Germs Movie
“What We Do Is Secret” in Los Angeles

It was a long time in the making and now it is opening night for the film, "What We Do Is Secret". The biopic about the legendary Los Angeles Punk band, The Germs, that even still today is revered by Punks all over the world. Seeing this film finally on a big screen with a sold out audience was electric.

The journey with this film started with us back in 2004 when we were over at Darby Crash’s mom’s house, ironically enough a short half mile from where the film would have it’s opening night in Los Angeles. It was during that visit that Darby’s mom Faith told us about the film and that they were doing some prep work to finally get this movie that had been in the making going back 10 years. Not long after that day we were contacted to lend support to the film, come to the set and see what was happening. The film became the personal mission of director Rodger Grossman who is a lifelong Germs fans to make sure this film got done and the story gets out… which brings us to the long awaited opening.

It is now 7:30pm and the theater was fully packed out for the first showing to the public in Los Angeles. The streets were still full of people that could not get in for this showing that lines began to form for the 10pm showing. There was not a seat to be found when we got into the theater and we found ourselves standing in the back. As the film started the audience cheered that they were finally seeing the film that had been in the making for so many years. A small thing we had seen at a few of the screenings prior and then seeing it again in the opening was a close up of a leather jacket and there amongst the buttons was a CH3 button that was pretty hard to miss, which is cool to see CH3 get around. Done in a semi interview style at times with the characters in the film doing interviews talking about their experience and then cutting to the scene that was just set up in the dialogue.

The film takes you on a path that begins with the childhood of Darby and the background that lays the foundation for the personality he would later become. From there you are lead to where Darby and Pat Smear are talking about creating a band, what this band was to represent, how they found their early members. As the film gets going Darby is seen right behind The Damned as their are being interviewed shouting "The Germs are the best band" with a later scene of The Damned siting in the audience as the early incarnation of The Germs plays one of the most rickety sets ever while the guys in The Damned jeer them.

There are scenes from the famed Masque in 77, The Roosevelt Hotel in 78, The Whiskey, The Fleetwood, Club 88 and others. The sound on the film was well beyond what is expected from a film. Many times during the film when The Germs would be performing, the audience "in the film" gave us the impression that it was the audience in the theater who were the ones cheering wildly (even though that did happen alot). This occurred many times, so much so that we found ourselves looking over the audience to see the source, only to realize that the sound of the film was so good that we could not separate fiction from reality… buy the people who did the sound for this film some beers, they did a great job! A really cool part of the entire film is that the Punks from todays generation are all throughout the film that we photograph often at shows all the time here in Los Angeles. The film will take you all the way to the final Germs show and then the closes out with the overdose death of Darby Crash and the funeral that followed.

After the film the audience in attendance broke out in applause as they welcomed to the front of the theater, director Rodger Grossman, the cast of the film, Shane West, Bijou Philips and Noah Segan. They were joined by original Germs members, Lorna Doom, Pat Smear and Don Bolles for a question and answer with the audience. So if this article is supposed to be a review of the film, here goes, but we would think of this as more of a call to action. We totally dug the film, we know that many will find this movie a ton of fun as look back into the Punk scene as it started in Los Angeles. How anyone with an idea can start anything -This we felt was the strongest underlying message in the film. Whatever you do, DO NOT RIP YOURSELF OFF by not going to see this film in a theater. Seeing this film in a theater on the big screen with the big sound will be an experience that you will never forget. Then when you watch the film on DVD later (expected release date for that is November 2008) you will always relish the fact that you saw it when it first came out and you can relive the experience you had in the theater over and over.

As was said earlier, anyone with an idea can start anything … director Rodger Grossman is proof of that. He kept the faith and saw this film through it’s ups and many many downs, little to no budget at times and found plenty of people to volunteer their skills to the film.

Go to a theater today and go see a film that was made from a true DIY spirit.

It has been 28 years since Darby’s death and we have a feeling that he is cracking up at all of this.

Official website: http://www.whatwedoissecretthemovie.com
Official MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/germsmovie

What We Do is Secret was written and directed by Rodger Grossman
Starring Shane West (Darby Crash), Rick Gonzalez (Pat Smear), Bijou Phillips (Lorna Doom), Noah Segan (Don Bolles). Run time: 1 hour, 33 minutes. Rated R