Frameline48 to Honor ‘Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story’ with Out in the Silence Award

Frameline, the organization that puts on the annual San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, will honor the feature-length documentary film Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, by directors Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee, with is Out in the Silence Award. The honor will be presented during Frameline48 at the Palace of Fine Arts on Sunday, June 23, 2024.

Frameline’s Out in the Silence Award is an annual honor conferred on an outstanding film project that highlights brave acts of visibility, especially in places where such acts are rare and unexpected because of the dominant systems that make it difficult for LGBTQ+ people to live authentic lives. This year’s award is generously underwritten by longtime film community members Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson.

“Tell her that I’m happy. Tell her that I’m gay. Tell her that I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane details the extraordinary rise to fame, sudden disappearance, and resurgence of trailblazing Black trans R&B soul singer Jackie Shane. From invitations to perform across the US and Canada in the 1960s, at the precipice of huge fame and undoubted success, Shane disappeared from the spotlight. But why? Told through never-before-heard phone conversations, beautiful rotoscope animated reenactments with Sandra Caldwell as later-life Jackie and Makayla Couture as younger Jackie, and a fabulous soundtrack by Jackie herself, directors Michael Mabbott (The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico) and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee (Passing, Frameline39) reconstruct this fascinating life and immense talent in a film that is sure to get viewers’ feet tapping. Hot off its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival, this documentary, which is executive produced by Elliot Page, chronicles the investigation to reveal a Black trans woman who prioritized her authenticity above all else. Decades later, Jackie Shane’s story will continue to inspire trans folks to live their truths — loudly.

Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story is the third recipient of the Out in the Silence Award, which is given to an outstanding film project that highlights brave acts of LGBTQ+ visibility in places where such acts are not common. Previous winners include Babatunde Apalowo’s All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White and Micheal Rice’s Black as U R. 

The award presentation will be followed by a screening of the film as well as a Q&A with the film’s expected guests, director Michael Mabbott and producer Justine Pimlott. Tickets can be purchased at frameline.org. Frameline48 begins with a Juneteenth block party celebration that will include the relighting of the Castro Theater marquee, an outdoor screening of Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero, music, drag performances from Reparations curated by winner of the Drag Queen of the Year Pageant, Nicki Jizz, and more, and runs from June 19-29 in theaters and online from June 24-30. See the full festival lineup here.

The event sponsor is BMO and the event’s community partners are the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival and the Museum of the African Diaspora.