Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story is a 2024 Canadian documentary film, directed by Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee.[1] The film is a portrait of Jackie Shane, the pioneering transgender singer who was a prominent figure in the Toronto music scene in the 1960s before virtually disappearing from public life after 1971.[2]
Production
The film was based in large part on telephone interviews that Mabbott conducted with Shane over the year before her death in 2019.[1] As her death precluded the ability to videotape any new interviews in person, and very little video footage of Shane from the 1960s survives, the producers depict her in the film through the use of animation, generated by superimposing photos of Shane over rotoscoped footage of contemporary drag performer Makayla Couture.[3]
In a positive review, Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote, "Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee's documentary Any Other Way combines archival materials, interviews and animated reenactments into a compelling investigation of an elusive life, as well as a talent so striking you'll be amazed it remained forgotten for so long."[9]
Awards
At Hot Docs, the film was awarded the DGC Ontario Special Jury Prize from the Best Canadian Feature Documentary award jury.[10] At Frameline, the film won the Out In The Silence Award, which is given to an outstanding film project that highlights brave acts of LGBTQ+ visibility in places where such acts are not common. [11]