The nearly forgotten story of one of pop music’s first black trans performers is told in Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story. In the 1960s Jackie Shane was a groundbreaking R&B star, before disappearing from the public eye in 1971. After her nieces Andrenee Majors and Vonnie Moore inherit her belongings and find her autobiography in the close, Jackie Shane’s story can finally be told.
Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story Synopsis
Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story is a documentary directed by Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee and Executive Produced by Elliot Page. The film tells the story of Jackie Shane, a black trans woman who was an R&B superstar for a brief period in the 1960s was an R&B superstar, with her home base at the Sapphire Club in Toronto. Featuring rotoscoped reenactments based around a telephone interview from towards the end of her life, the story of Jackie Shane is finally told.
My Thoughts on Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story
Jackie Shane was a trans superstar at a time when transgender wasn’t a common term, instead being viewed by most as a cross-dressing gay man. However, that didn’t stop her from making her name on the R&B scene, staring at the New Era Club in Nashville and being good friends with Little Richard. Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story covers her brief R&B career until she completely disappeared from public view in the 1970s. Sadly, a late-in-life resurgence was halted by her passing, but Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story can help ensure that this R&B pioneer is remembered.
