Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story

The creators of Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story know that the majority of viewers won’t be familiar with its subject, a pioneering trans soul and R&B singer mostly forgotten to time because of the lack of video footage of her performances. So the documentary gets inventive, using rotoscoped animated sequences and audio recordings of Shane’s phone-call conversations with co-director Michael Mabbott to sketch out her life, her career, and her sense of self. Interviews with relatives unaware of her fame help illuminate why Shane receded from the spotlight when she did. These varied approaches help the documentary achieve a kind of totality, even as a key component of Any Other Way is the suggestion that all of us are elusive in some way, whether to the public or to our loved ones. For such narrative balance and its reveal of Jackie Shane’s remarkable life, Any Other Way wins a Peabody Award.