It’s Only Life After All
Get an all-access pass to the life and times of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, a.k.a. queer folk-rock duo the Indigo Girls, using over 40 years of personal camcorder footage, audiotapes, archival material, and present-day interviews, in this stunning exploration of music history.
Pioneers as proudly out musicians—and consequently a huge, even lifesaving, influence on some of their fan base—Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, a.k.a. the Indigo Girls, look back on their long career in Alexandria Bombach's doc. Even those who don't follow folk-rock probably also have heard of the duo as something of a pop-culture punch line—icons of a certain strain of earnestly crusading, Birkenstock-wearing, crunchy-granola, womyn's-music (choose your own favorite stereotype) liberalism. This Ray and Saliers freely admit, accepting their status with good humor but not hesitating to call out the homophobia behind it, as they examine early lyrics, concert footage, and in particular one particularly slimy New York Times review. Except for fan testimony, the Girls are Bombach's only interviewees, but they have a lot to talk about. Both 59, Ray and Saliers have played together since elementary school in Georgia, recorded their first album in 1987, found their first fame two years later, and have been active ever since—not only musically, but as outspoken activists for a range of sociopolitical issues.
—Gavin Borchert
- Director: Alexandria Bombach
- Principal Cast: Amy Ray, Emily Saliers
- Country: USA
- Year: 2023
- Running Time: 123 min.
- Producer: Kathlyn Horan, Jess Devaney, Anya Rous, Alexandria Bombach
- Cinematographers: Alexandria Bombach
- Editors: Alexandria Bombach
- Website: Official Film Website
- Filmography: On Her Shoulders (2018), Frame by Frame (2015)
- Language: English