A host of conspiracy theories surrounded the sudden disappearance of pioneering transgender soul singer Jackie Shane from the music world in 1971 after she packed Toronto nightclubs during the 1960s, only to resurface when news of her death in Nashville broke in 2019.

Despite leaving the public eye, the Nashville-born R&b performer’s celebrated, yet complicated legacy lived on in Jackie Shane Live, a bootlegged 1967 live set recording of Shane performing at Toronto’s famed Saphire Tavern that caught the ear of local filmmaker and music fan Michael Mabbott.

Mabbott talked to The Hollywood Reporter before his documentary, Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story — which he co-directed with Lucah Rosenberg-Lee and is executive produced by Elliot Page — world premieres at the South by Southwest Festival on Saturday.

“I was just so intrigued by her story, but no one knew anything besides she had disappeared, with very mysterious rumors and conjecture...