There’s a sub-genre of documentaries that track down figures who’ve disappeared from public view. A new film called “Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story” captures Shane as a powerhouse R&B performer and a Black, trans woman who got her start in Nashville, then took the Toronto scene by storm in the 1960s. She eventually stopped performing and no one knew where she was. Decades later, Shane was excited to be found by a filmmaker, but she died before they could really get to work.
Senior music writer Jewly Hight says the challenge became figuring out how to do justice to a performer who’d never been properly appreciated even in life.