On Her Own Terms

If you’re not familiar with 1960s soul singer Jackie Shane, it’s not surprising. The trailblazing Black transgender performer walked away from her career in 1971 and was reclusive in her later years. But Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, a new National Film Board documentary, is shedding fresh light on the pioneering performer.

Shane appeared on the radar of Toronto-based filmmaker Michael Mabbott in 2017, when the singer re-released her singles and recordings of her live 1967 performances as an album. After connecting with Shane in 2019 — ahead of her death in February of that year — Mabbott spent more than one hundred hours on the phone with the artist. Recordings of their conversations, along with footage of her performances, are brought to life in the documentary co-directed with Toronto-based independent filmmaker Lucah Rosenberg-Lee.

“It was not that the world was ready to hear her story, she felt that the world needed to hear her story,” Mabbott says. “It all boils down to the message ‘live and let live,’ which she talked about all the time. She thought the world needed the message now more than ever.”

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1940, Shane escaped Jim Crow laws by joining a touring circus, which brought her to Cornwall, Ontario, in 1959. The following year, she moved to Montreal and became a singer for Frank Motley and his Motley Crew band, performing with a bouffant hairdo, full makeup, and sequined costumes. Her stage presence, combined with her powerful voice, drew attention, landing her on television in Nashville and earning her top billing at nightclubs in Toronto, where the group settled in 1961. It was there that Shane’s fame peaked, as the city’s audiences were more accepting of gender non-conformity and were eager to hear Black musicians.

Shane’s persona went beyond her talent. The documentary shows a wise, courageous young transgender woman who lived on her own terms, rejecting offers to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show for not letting her perform in her makeup and on American Bandstand for its segregationist policies.

Any Other Way won the DGC Special Jury Prize for Canadian Feature Documentary at Toronto’s Hot Docs film festival and was featured in several international film festivals. More importantly, it brings to light a story narrated in Shane’s bold, unflinching voice — the way she intended it to be heard.