Some bands build a myth out of reinvention. The Red Hot Chili Peppers built theirs out of a tight circle—kids in late-’70s/early-’80s Los Angeles turning friendship into a sound, a scene, then a career that outlived the room it started in. Netflix has now unveiled the trailer for “The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel,” a new documentary that puts the late original guitarist Hillel Slovak back at the center of that early story, framing the group’s formative years as a found-family sprint through the city’s punk-funk churn.
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Directed by Ben Feldman (the filmmaker behind “Bug Out” and “Rich & Shameless”), the film is set to world premiere at SXSW on March 13, 2026, ahead of its Netflix rollout on March 20, 2026.
The doc’s pitch is direct: Slovak wasn’t a footnote to the band’s eventual multi-platinum arc—he helped shape the Chili Peppers’ early funk-rock DNA—and the film treats his role in the origin story as both a creative engine and an emotional fault line. In addition to revisiting the band’s earliest tours and the L.A. ecosystem that fed them, Feldman’s film threads Slovak’s presence through the group’s early records, including Freaky Styley and The Uplift Mofo Party Plan.
What the trailer hasn’t foregrounded so far is the story’s grim hinge: Slovak died of an accidental heroin overdose on June 25, 1988—an ending that reshaped the band as much as anything that happened onstage. And that darkness doesn’t sit on the margins of the Chili Peppers’ history; addiction threaded through the group’s orbit for years, with frontman Anthony Kiedis repeatedly battling heroin and cocaine, and guitarist John Frusciante spiraling into severe heroin use after leaving the band in the early ’90s. Even the post-Slovak lineup turbulence carries that shadow—Dave Navarro’s own drug problems were part of the tension that led to his departure from the band.
On the interview side, the film features Flea and Kiedis, alongside voices from Slovak’s immediate orbit and the wider scene—former Chili Peppers (and Pearl Jam) drummer Jack Irons, Alain Johannes (of Eleven), and funk godfather George Clinton, among them.
Behind the camera, Marc D’Agostino produces, with Dan Braun, Josh Braun, David Blackman, James Slovak, and Feldman serving as executive producers. Editorial duties go to John Tarquinio.
“The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel” premieres on Netflix on March 20, 2026. Watch the trailer below.
