IT’S ONLY LIFE AFTER ALL

Amy Ray and Emily Saliers are the Indigo Girls: a folk-rock duo for forty years, songwriters, activists – and, for several generations of fans, proof that one can accept oneself. The road there led through a music industry that had no pigeonhole for two queer women with guitars: misogyny, homophobia, mockery of anything that did not fit the image of the female pop star. Alexandria Bombach weaves forty years of home videos, archive material and present-day observation into a portrait of two friends who never expected to become famous. “It’s Only Life After All” is a documentary from the USA from 2023.

The US director Alexandria Bombach handled direction, cinematography, editing and production herself. The plan had been a tour documentary; the pandemic forced a different film, built from around a thousand hours of material and candid conversations that spare nothing. It premiered in Sundance in January 2023, followed by South by Southwest and Tribeca; Oscilloscope brought the film to US cinemas in 2024. It was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2023.

Shown at the 2023 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2023 · Film Archive