Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All

Deedle LaCour and Matt Riggle's 2013 documentary is about the Descendents, formed in California, and their continuation as All. The band occupied an unusual place in the punk scene: songs about loneliness, coffee and rejection rather than political anger. At the centre is the drummer Bill Stevenson. He held the band together; as members changed he was the one keeping the music going. The film also covers the period of his brain tumour and serious health problems. The band's influence on the pop punk generation that followed is worked out in detail; most of the groups that sold heavily in the nineties cited the Descendents. The documentary does not leave that as an assertion but supports it with the musicians who speak. Who it's for: those interested in punk history and band documentaries. Who it's not for: viewers new to the band; the documentary assumes you know the album chronology and the names in the scene.