An R&B star who outshone the likes of Etta James and Little Richard, she was a transgender soul singer named Jackie Shane and broke barriers in the 1960s with her raw talent, courage and unmatched musical ability.
Then, in 1971, she simply disappeared from the music scene.
Now Victoria-raised producer and co-founder of Banger Films Sam Dunn is bringing Jackie Shane’s story back to life with the release of his film Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story. The film hits cinemas nationwide next month and opens at the Vic Theatre on August 16.
“Michael Mabbott, one of the film’s directors, deserves credit for bringing this story to life,” Dunn said. “He was obsessed with Jackie’s story and no one knew where she had gone. But he searched until he found her and over time became friends with her.”
Mabbott actually became Shane’s boyfriend and recorded many hours of conversations with her to find out the story behind her disappearance.
“He learned that she was tired of living the life she had to live as a trans woman … living a life where she couldn’t be herself,” Dunn said.
“We spoke once a week, usually on Fridays. She would unfold her story deliberately and thoughtfully, like an audition, to find out, ‘How are you going to react to this?’ or ‘Can you handle this?’ It was like an essay about her life that she built up layer by layer to make sure the person she was telling it to heard it correctly,” Mabbott said.
“She wanted her story to be told and I wanted to listen. Much of the film is based on recordings of those conversations. That year of my life remains the greatest honor I’ve ever had.”
According to Dunn, Mabbott had almost convinced Shane to return to the stage, and she had begun giving interviews saying she would soon return for a performance in Toronto.
This performance never took place as she died in her sleep on February 21, 2019.
“This is not only the story of a person who disappeared, but also the story of a great artist who never got the recognition she deserved.”
The film tells this story in Shane’s own distinctive voice, featuring never-before-heard phone conversations, stunning animation, and an original score by Murray Lightburn.
So far, 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 favorite. The film currently has a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes (as of July 23, 2024).
The film’s coming to Victoria has special meaning for Dunn, as he grew up in the city, attended Vic High School and graduated from UVic.
Since then, he has directed and produced several award-winning music documentaries and series, including films about Rush, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden and ZZ Top, as well as the Emmy and Peabody award-winning Netflix series Hip-Hop Evolution.
More recently, Dunn served as executive producer on the Canadian Screen Award-winning documentary Sex with Sue and has directed shows for Paramount+ and A&E. Along with business partner Scot McFadyen, Sam has helped build Banger Films into one of the world’s leading documentary production companies.
