FANNY: The Right to Rock

The groundbreaking contributions of women have been virtually written out of history for centuries, especially women of colour. It has been my life's mission as a documentary filmmaker, to bring important, untold stories of fearless women to the screen.

FANNY: The Right to Rock is a film that not only celebrates this Filipina-American founded, ferocious rock band who were far ahead of their time, but in an American political climate currently poisoned with hatred and violent anti-immigration policies -- not to mention a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with only 13% women inductees -- it is time to right the wrongs of history.

Fanny is a groundbreaking band of rock suffragettes who, despite the racism, discrimination and sexism they faced as teens, and the ageism they conquer today as they continue to rock out in their 70s, are more determined than ever to speak out through their music and inspire a new generation of girls to believe in the power of their own beautifully loud voices. Some of the bandmates are lesbian, but the record label told them in the 1970s that could not be in Fanny if they revealed their identity, and many LBGTQ women musicians that followed them were inspired to speak their own truth.

My last theatrical documentary, Rebels On Pointe, made the short list at Sundance a couple years ago (which celebrated LBGTQ firsts in ballet), and I am determined for FANNY: The Right to Rock to make its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival 2020 -- which is the 100th anniversary of suffragettes earning the right to vote in the USA, not to mention the 50th anniversary since Fanny released their first album. One of my Executive Producers is Catherine Bainbridge, whose film RUMBLE, that celebrates the unsung contributions of First Nations people to rock & roll, celebrated its World Premiere at Sundance 2019.

I applaud Sundance for hiring Kim Yutani, a creative visionary in the film community who is an inspiration to women of colour, Asian American women and the LBGTQ community as well. FANNY: The Right To Rock is an incredibly timely film for the times we are living in today, offering perspective, hope and inspiration for women as we age, but also for a new generation of girls and young women who should be supported to embrace their unique identities and truth as they re- invent and pursue their own definitions of the American Dream.

I will leave you with a quote from Ann Powers of NPR, which beautifully sums up Fanny's importance, and why a film that brings their untold story to the public is long overdue:

"Fanny is one of music's lost legendary entities, often invoked but seldom playlisted. The band, a vital part of the Los Angeles rock scene in the early 1970s, was the first all-woman ensemble to release albums on a major label. Sisters June and Jean Millington formed the core of the group, with June on adventurous electric guitar and Jean on the Beatles-esque bass. Formed from the velvet ashes of the sisters' teenage touring band the Svelts, Fanny was a showcase for the swagger of long-haired, bell-bottomed, fierce femmes at the dawn of the women's liberation movement."