Jackie Shane: Any Other Way review - The Trailblazing Soul Queen

A fabulous new documentary on Jackie Shane, Any Other Way, unspools at Toronto's Hot Docs Festival on April 27th. It's a brilliant portrait of the late transgendered soul singer, who took Toronto by storm in the 1960s.

The film matches extensive recordings of Jackie conversing and singing with recreations of a younger Jackie (played by Makayla Walker) and an older Jackie (Sandra Caldwell). Ingeniously, the production team took live-action footage of the performances and gave them a unique, AI-assisted rotoscope technique that animates them in a vivid, painterly way. The recreations elevate the documentary into a visceral, kinetic experience that really helps to bring Jackie to life.

The film includes 10 songs and a wealth of archival material, plus interviews with Jackie's friends, nieces Andrenee Majors Douglas and Vonnie Moore and Toronto commentators like musician Bobby Dean Blackburn and biographer Rob Bowman, who also acted as creative consultant.

Jackie Shane was an important, pioneering artist and this bittersweet portrait, which captures the highs and lows of her extraordinary career and life, does her story justice. Don't miss it.