Jean and June Millington, Filipino American sisters and lifelong bandmates best known for his or her Nineteen Seventies rock band Fanny, have over 50 years of history within the music industry to reflect on within the documentary “Fanny: The Right To Rock.”
When Fanny was signed to a recording contract in 1970, there was nobody in rock music quite like them. Though the group’s lineup has had several iterations, all its members have been women, and two — June Millington and the drummer Alice de Buhr — are lesbians. Their musical chops earned them gigs at venues like Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, where they won the respect of musicians like David Bowie, Bonnie Raitt, Alice Bag and Cherie Currie of the Runaways.
The group disbanded in 1975, but three original members — the sisters June and Jean (Millington) Adamian, and Brie Darling — reunited for an album, “Fanny Walked the Earth,” released in 2018. The considered the group’s struggles brings a smile to Jean’s face within the movie. “We handled the unfairness against girls and feminism, and June says, now we’re bucking ageism!”
The director Bobbi Jo Hart decided to indicate the group’s story through a mixture of archival footage and present-day interviews with band members and their famous fans. The film’s most novel sequences come when Hart joins the band for recording sessions for his or her 2018 album, and finds that even when the voices warble a bit greater than they did within the screaming days of youth, Fanny’s sound stays heavy. But the traditional vérité footage doesn’t add latest depth to the guitar licks and improvisations, the signals of musicianship that make Fanny feel artistically vital as white-haired rockers.
What the movie showcases best from its subjects, then, is the humor and ease of girls who’ve survived a lifetime of setbacks and strife. Fanny has already proven itself — what’s left is for us to enjoy its growing catalog.
Fanny: The Right to Rock
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. In theaters.
