Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee’s award-winning Banger Films/National Film Board of Canada (NFB) feature documentary Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story is opening in cinemas across Canada beginning August 16, distributed by the NFB.
Nashville-born soul singer Jackie Shane boldly carved a new path as one of music’s pioneering Black trans performers—but on the edge of stardom, why did she suddenly leave the spotlight?
Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story hands the mic over to one of the most beguiling artists of the 20th century to finally reveal her truth, in her own unmistakable voice. The film combines never-before-heard phone conversations, dazzling animation and an original score by Murray Lightburn (The Dears), in a remarkable portrait that includes Elliot Page (X-Men, The Umbrella Academy) as executive producer.
To date, Any Other Way has won the Out in the Silence Award at the Frameline International LGBTQ+ Film Festival in San Francisco as well as the DGC Special Jury Prize – Canadian Feature Documentary at Hot Docs, where it was also a Top 10 Audience Favourite. The film currently has a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
National screening schedule
More cities to come—filmmaker Q&As at select screenings:
- Opening August 16, Fox Theatre, Toronto
- Opening August 16, Cinéma du Parc, Montreal (English w/ French subtitles)
- Opening August 16, The Vic Theatre, Victoria
- Opening August 23, TIFF Lightbox, Toronto
- Opening August 25, ByTowne Cinema, Ottawa
- Opening September 4, Dave Barber Cinematheque, Winnipeg
- Opening September 6, The Screening Room, Kingston
- Opening September 20, Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane, Halifax
Additional festival screenings:
- July 27, Gimli Unitarian Church, Gimli International Film Festival
- August 11, Theatre Lac-Brome, Knowlton Film Festival
A star is reborn. With an outsize stage presence that eclipsed R&B greats like Etta James and Little Richard, Black trans soul singer Jackie Shane was the real deal.
Vowing to escape the Jim Crow South, Jackie joined a travelling carnival and arrived in Cornwall, Ontario, in 1959. In 1960, she moved to Montreal, joining with bandleader Frank Motley and his Motley Crew band as its singer, touring Canada and the U.S. before settling in Toronto in 1961. In an era when voices like hers were silenced and marginalized, Jackie blazed an incandescent trail to the top of the charts in 1960s Toronto, where she ruled the nightclub scene.
After mysteriously vanishing from public view for almost 40 years, this little-known icon is given her ultimate due in Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee’s remarkable documentary portrait Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, executive produced by Elliot Page.
With few recordings of her legendary performances, this film brings Jackie to life in her own words through never-before-heard phone conversations, dazzling rotoscope animation and a newly released song, part of an incredible soundtrack that seals Jackie’s place as one of the greatest soul performers of the 20th century.
The full scope of her extraordinary life and career is an epic journey, marked by family secrets, loss and love. From standing down the mob to telling off Ed Sullivan, Jackie lived as her most authentic self through talent, courage and an unbreakable commitment to truth. But on the eve of her return to the stage, fate had other plans. In Any Other Way, Jackie finally gets her second act. Or in her own words: “Oh, Honey! When it comes to Jackie, look out!”
