Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story [Documentary]

[carlo]

Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story documentary makes its premiere at Toronto's Hot Docs film festival.

DIRECTED BY: MICHAEL MABBOTT, LUCAH ROSENBERG-LEE

Once you’ve heard Jackie Shane sing, you’ll never forget it. Yet, after shattering barriers as one of pop music’s first Black trans performers, this trail-blazing icon vanished from the spotlight at the height of her fame. From modest beginnings in Nashville, Shane soon recognized her talents and, in her late teens, made her way to Boston and Montreal, working the nightclub circuit while taking the stage with Frank Motley, a musician known for playing two trumpets at once. Her arrival in Toronto during its 1960s music explosion made her a highly sought-after headlining act who seemed destined to take her place among the R&B stars of the era. Blending her music with never-released phone conversations and soulful animated re-enactments, Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story brings Shane back to life in her own words, finally providing the recognition she so rightly deserves and introducing her to a generation fighting for their right to be their true selves.

https://hotdocs.ca/whats-on/hot-docs...ie-shane-story

[carlo]

I had the opportunity to watch this Jackie Shane documentary this week. There is obviously limited video footage of Jackie, but the film makers did a good job with connecting the dots of her story. She tells her story in her own words, using the audio from phone calls that were exchanged with the film makers prior to her death. There were plans to have her sit down and be interviewed formally in a studio, for the purpose of this documentary, but in 2019 she sadly and suddenly passed away. It features countless unseen photos from Jackie's archives, interviews with her nieces, a band member of hers, a fan, and other historians. It gets into her story after her sudden disappearance from the music scene in 1971, which is interesting, since I don't recall this being discussed in any of the interviews or published pieces from the last several years. I have read that this documentary will be hitting the Canadian streaming platform Crave, sometime this summer. I'm assuming it will be available internationally as well. I share details on this, if/when I learn more.