EXCLUSIVE: David Bowie called them “as important as anybody else who’s ever been, ever.” But for decades the pioneering all-women rock band Fanny was mostly overlooked, despite their huge talent – a result of sexism and homophobia.
The musical group co-founded by Filipina sisters June and Jean Millington finally gets its due with the documentary Fanny: The Right to Rock. The Center for Asian American Media and PBS announced today the film will premiere on public television stations on Monday, May 22. It will also stream on PBS.org and the PBS app.
Fanny won the audience award at Hot Docs in Toronto as well as awards from Frameline in San Francisco and the Two Riversides Film and Art Festival in Poland. We have your first look at the film directed by Bobbi Jo Hart in the clip above.
“With incredible archival footage of the band’s rocking past, intercut with its revival with a new rock record deal, the film includes interviews with a large cadre of music icons,” according to a release, “including Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, Bonnie Raitt, The Go-Go’s Kathy Valentine, Todd Rundgren, The Runaways’ Cherie Currie, Lovin’ Spoonful’s John Sebastian, The B-52s’ Kate Pierson, Charles Neville and David Bowie guitarist and bassist Earl Slick and Gail Ann Dorsey. Fighting early barriers of race, gender and sexuality in the music industry, and now ageism, the incredible women of Fanny are ready to claim their hallowed place in the halls of rock ‘n’ roll fame.”
The release continues, “Through the film Fanny: The Right to Rock… discover one of the most important rock groups you’ve never heard of… until now.”
Courtesy of Linda Wolf
Ahead of the PBS premiere, the Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles will host a screening of Fanny: The Right to Rock on May 16. The following night, May 17, Fanny bandmates will reunite for a 50thanniversary concert at the famed Whisky A Go-Go nightclub on the Sunset Strip in L.A. Special guests are expected to join bandmates June Millington, Jean Millington, Brie Darling, Alice de Buhr and Patti Quatro on stage at the Whisky.
In a statement, filmmaker Bobbi Jo Hart said, “I am honored to celebrate the untold story of Fanny’s vital – yet buried – contributions to Rock & Roll with the public. Just like Sister Rosetta Tharpe inspired Elvis, Fanny shattered the glass ceiling of the genre to lay crucial groundwork for future bands of women to succeed, from The Runaways to The Go Go’s, and continue to do so today. Fanny deserves nothing less than to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2024.”
Fanny were sometimes referred to as the “female Beatles,” which is both a compliment of sorts but also a reductive label in that it emphasized their gender as the most salient aspect of their musicianship. Many rock journalists back in the day refused to take them seriously.
“How did people kind of disappear us, how did they stop talking about us?” June Millington questioned in an interview with Deadline in November. “I don’t really know the answer to that, but I know it’s related to… misogyny and sexism. That kind of cut off our blood flow in Fanny.”
Fanny broke up in the 1970s. But during their time as a unit, they played with wild abandon, ignoring the doubters who didn’t appreciate their talent.
Members of Fanny today
PBS
“It was a great thing that we had each other, that we got to get past that and enjoy doing what we did without necessarily, at least for me, feeling the heaviness of what was actually happening,” Brie Darling told Deadline, “as opposed to the wonder and the beauty of playing music and enjoying ourselves performing.”
Fanny: The Right to Rock premieres in May during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, along with a new American Masters film, Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV (premiering May 16). Throughout May, PBS will also encore other notable films that shine a light on AAPI experiences and filmmakers including Rising Against Asian Hate, Free Chol Soo Lee (Independent Lens), Hidden Letters (Independent Lens), Waterman – Duke: Ambassador of Aloha (American Masters), Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir (American Masters), The Donut King (Independent Lens), and additional titles streaming on PBS.org.
Fanny is written and directed by Bobbi Jo Hart and co-produced by Bobbi Jo Hart and Robbie Hart. Executive producers include Katherine Buck, Bobbi Jo Hart, Anne Pick, Catherine Bainbridge, Ina Fichman, Randy Lennox and Glen Salzman. Director of Photography is Claire Sanford. Editor is Catherine Legault. Music by Fanny. Original music & sound mix by Daniel Toussaint. Online post-production by Digital Cut.
Watch the clip from Fanny above.
