Fanny: The Right to Rock

“Revivify Fanny. And my work is done.”

Sometime in the 1960s, in sunny Sacramento, two Filipina-American sisters got together with other teenage girls to play music. Little did they know their garage band would evolve into the legendary rock group Fanny, the first all-women band to release an LP with a major record label (Warner/Reprise, 1970).

»more info at the film website

Despite releasing 5 critically-acclaimed albums over 5 years, touring with famed bands from SLADE to CHICAGO and amassing a dedicated fan base of music legends including David Bowie, Fanny’s groundbreaking impact in music was written out of history… until bandmates reunite 50 years later with a new rock record deal.

With their long, wild hair now streaked with silver, if not outright white, the women of Fanny still know how to rock. The band—comprised at various times of musically self-taught sisters June and Jean Millington, Brie Howard Darling, Nickey Barclay, Alice de Buhr, and Patti Quatro—kicked down the door for the likes of The Runaways and The Go-Go’s by being the first all-woman rock band to release an album with a major record company in the ’70s.

Interspersed with archival performance footage and interviews with rock ’n’ roll legends like Bonnie Raitt, Kate Pierson of The B-52’s, Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s,Todd Rundgren, The Runaways’ Cherie Currie, this loving portrait from director Bobbi Jo Hart ( Rebels on Pointe, Frameline41) follows the band members as they try to make their mark again after 45 years, while chronicling their trailblazing rise and unfortunate plateau mired by sexism, racism, and homophobia.

Meet original Fanny drummer Alice de Buhr for our post-screening Q&A!

“They were one of the finest fucking rock bands of their time…They’re as important as anybody else who’s ever been, ever; it just wasn’t their time.”

“Tells an important and bittersweet story that is testament to the importance of amplifying the voices of queer women of colour, lest their impacts be lost to a patriarchal history.”

“While Fanny was active in the 1970s and the members are now in their early 70s, the film pulses with the feeling that their long-deserved recognition is just around the bend.”