FilAm History Month: Documentary shines a light on historic all-female rock band Fanny

All-female rock band Fanny, was so groundbreaking they didn't fit in any categories.

Way before the members of Asian American rock group Linda Linda's were a glimmer in their parents' imaginations; before the Go Go's made headlines as a girl rock band in the 70s; way before H.E.R. became the Filipino American R&B star that she is and before Olivia Rodrigo debuted No. 1 on the music charts; there was Fanny.

Decades after Fanny, the Filipino American female rockers, broke stereotypes assigned Asian women, they are finally getting credit for the group's groundbreaking role in Filipino American history. Three of the four members: Jean and June Millington, as well as original drummer Brie Darling were Filipino Americans out of Sacramento, California.

A documentary of the group is currently making the rounds in the film festival circuit bringing attention to Fanny, just in time for Filipino American History Month.

The Fanny: Right to Rock documentary reveals the incredible, untold story of three Filipina American teens who emerged from garage band status in the 1960s and  morphed into the ferocious California rock group Fanny, the first band comprised of women to release an LP with a major record label (Warner/Reprise/1970).

Out of the musical milieu that made the San Francisco Bay Area in the 60s the center of the music world producing Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Country Joe and the Fish and Grateful Dead and a dozen other musical acts, Fanny emerged and the music world didn't know what to make of them.

They didn't fit into the little boxes assigned to rock 'n roll acts: They were women, they were queer, who were aggressively rock and they were Filipino Americans. 

Despite releasing Top 40 hits and five critically-acclaimed albums between 1970 to 1974, counting David Bowie as one of their biggest fans and touring extensively with bands like CHICAGO, Steely Dan and other major groups, Fanny's groundbreaking impact in music has been lost in the mists of time... until now.

 An affecting documentary, Fanny: The Right to Rock carries on the work that one of their biggest supporters started, and is a definitive proclamation on the significance of one of the most under-appreciated bands in rock music history. This is the untold story of a self-founded, 1960s garage band — which included Filipina American and queer bandmates — that morphed into the ferocious rock group Fanny, the first band of women to release an LP with a major record label (Warner/Reprise, 1970).

The documentary by filmmaker Bobbi Jo Hart premiered last Spring. It is about to get a bigger audience as it is introduced to the AAPI community and the broader film and music world through the numerous film festivals across the nation.

Hart was interviewed by She Does the City this summer and was asked what was the biggest discovery she made while making the film. She answered:

"In terms of the band Fanny, it was quite an eye opener to realize how superficially they were treated by media back in the day. No one asked about the Filipina American heritage of bandmates, or the fact that there were queers in the band. No one asked about the story of how bassist Jean Millington came to possess her famed P bass. No one wrote about the fact they were a self-formed band and self taught musicians…who just happened to be young women. This was a frustrating discovery… about the discrimination, the sexism, and now the bandmates battle ageism as well… because one of the first reviews of the film (by a young, male journalist) mentioned how he loved the band, and the archival performances, but that he did not like the “present day” story…or seeing older women performing, so to speak. So I also discovered this week how ageist sexism is omni present circa 2021. So after being very frustrated, I became even more determined to bring the film to the widest audience possible… because this film is also about normalizing the fact that women still have passions, dreams and a kick-ass voice to share with the world, especially when they get older. So I love smashing that perception of women in a rocking chair as they age, and replacing that with a woman who ROCKS!"

Prior to the arrival of Fanny, no all-female band in any genre of modern music, playing their own instruments and writing most all of their own material, had ever known true success; Fanny was the first.

"As this film eagerly illustrates, Fanny’s music and legacy left a lasting impact on those who witnessed them in their formative years. The film is more than “sex, drugs, and rock and roll,” much more than a band’s rise and fall, and even more than a statement on the proverbial glass ceiling. Fanny: The Right to Rock doesn’t just celebrate a career, but it corrects a historical oversight. The film writes what was written out, but also leaves a blank page for the band to write their own ending," wrote Joel Quizon in the program notes of recently concluded Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.

One of their fans, David Bowie, wrote in Rolling Stone:

“One of the most important female bands in American rock has been buried without a trace. And that is Fanny. They were one of the finest fucking rock bands of their time, in about 1973. They were extraordinary: They wrote everything, they played like motherfuckers, they were just colossal and wonderful, and nobody’s ever mentioned them. They’re as important as anybody else who’s ever been, ever; it just wasn’t their time. Revivify Fanny. And I will feel that my work is done.”

Nowadays, their trademark long, straight black hair has turned white, they find themselves still breaking glass ceilings. These feisty Filipina Americans are taking on the stigmas of ageism, proving that age is just a number, that brown skin is just a color, and how true success is defined by embracing their own identity and letting go of the limits and expectations society has put upon them.

“History is written by the victors,” says filmmaker Hart. “So feisty women — especially women of color and those in the LBGTQ community — must take the reins to help rewrite the history that has excluded them.”