‘The queens of rock’ n ‘roll’: Montreal filmmaker gives Fanny the buzz they deserve

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Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott loved them. Helen Reddy once called them “the queens of rock ‘n’ roll.” David Bowie was a huge fan.

Bowie said: “One of the most important female bands in American rock has been buried without a trace… They are as important as anyone else who has ever been; it just wasn’t his time. “

Everyone is talking about Fanny, the first female rock band to release a major label album. The group toured with everyone from Slade to Chicago, released five albums in the 1970s, and garnered rave reviews from critics and rock stars alike. But you’ve probably never heard of them because they rarely appear in the official music stories of the time.

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Now Montreal filmmaker Bobbi Jo Hart wants to change that. He has made a feature documentary, Fanny: The Right to Rock, which attempts to rewrite rock history and suggests that maybe, just maybe Fanny was forgotten simply because rock is still a man’s world and historians, and industry, They have trouble coming to terms with a band of women and even more trouble with women rocking out when some of those women are gay and Filipino-American.

Fanny: The Right to Rock opens theatrically in Montreal this week and is screened nightly at Cinéma du Parc.

Hart, a seasoned documentary director, discovered Fanny by chance in 2016 and couldn’t believe he had never heard of them.

“I was just as excited and excited,” Hart said in an interview over the weekend at the Social Club in St-Viateur St. “A lot of my films are about women and girls and often they are about marginalized communities, about stories that they have been buried. For me, Fanny was another example of this. “

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His film tells the story of Fanny, beginning with sisters Jean and June Millington and their family who moved from the Philippines to Sacramento, California in the early 1960s. They formed a couple of all-female bands before creating Fanny in the late 1960s. 1960s and signing a contract with Reprise Records.

The documentary features interviews with well-known music figures who sing Fanny’s praises, including Elliott, The Lovin ‘Spoonful’s John Sebastian, The B-52’s Kate Pierson, The Go-Gos’ Kathy Valentine, and musicians Earl Slick and Gail. Ann Dorsey. , who frequently played with Bowie.

Hart brings the story to the present, following the band as they work on an album that they hope will introduce them to a new generation. 2018’s Fanny Walked the Earth didn’t really do that, but the film, which has played festivals across the continent, is creating new excitement for the band. Some of the band members have been playing live after screenings, even here in Montreal.

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Fanny: The Right to Rock had its local premiere on Pop Montreal a few weeks ago and lead guitarist June Millington was on hand to add her sizzling riffs to a set of post-screening versions of Fanny produced by Montreal’s alternative girl band NOBRO.

“I’m even more excited to normalize women as they age and are still kicking butt,” Hart said. “Knitting is amazing, but why not pick up a Gibson guitar and play amazing riffs? The movie doesn’t just face age discrimination. He’s taking on sexism, like the band did. “

Hart thought it was a fascinating story.

“They were ahead of their time,” Hart said. “They were women of color, there were queer women in the band. In the past, the label didn’t say anything about it. The record label wasn’t promoting them that way. The articles back then really focused on the witty side of the band, so why didn’t you know about them? History is written by the victors, so I wanted to rewrite their history. Women are often removed from history. “

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This year, The Go-Gos, Tina Turner and Carole King will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but in their history, only eight percent of the members have been women.

“The people who make the decisions, whether it’s record labels or bands, are men,” Hart said.

That’s why Hart has put a lot of effort into getting musicians to perform after movie screenings in different cities.

“(The movie) doesn’t just celebrate Fanny’s musical legacy,” Hart said. “It is also shedding light on other female bands that we should know about. Like NOBRO in Montreal “.

For Hart, this is more than just a movie.

“My mission is to induct Fanny into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” he said.

Fanny: the right to rock opens across Canada this month and is featured at Cinema du Parc every night this week. For more information, visit the website: cinemaduparc.com. It will be in Crave sometime in 2022.

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