My heart was full after spending two hours with Amy Ray and Emily Saliers a.k.a. the Indigo Girls.

I’m trying to tell you something ’bout my life
Maybe give me insight between black and white
And the best thing you ever done for me
Is to help me take my life less seriously
It’s only life after all, yeah

Closer to Fine – Emily Saliers

Their music doesn’t easily fit into a genre – maybe they are rock folk guitar agitators – and that they are (mostly) unashamedly earnest, outspoken, lesbian, and political mean they never get the attention from the mainstream press that they deserve.

Director Alexandria Bombach gives Amy and Emily plenty of space to tell their story, focusing on the music, the queer communities that supported them, and how their activism and understanding has evolved. They talk of realising their white privilege and becoming involved in indigenous environmentalism, and also how they see themselves within a largely sexist and homophobic industry.

The film is helped by the thousands of hours of video and digital footage that Amy compulsively shot over the decades, giving us a rare and personal insight into their lives and careers. They are remarkably self-aware, and you get the sense that they are decent people. Structurally, it felt right to leave the focus on their personal lives to the end, and to separate this from the impact they have had musically and on generations of misfits.

I often felt teary, as much for the remembered love of their music and selves in my 20s, as for their warmth and empathy in speaking out about holding and cherishing queer people. We need more voices like this.

I left the cinema, singing their music into the rainy cold Melbourne streets.

Director: Alexandria Bombach
Origin: USA (2023)
Language: English
Genre: Documentary

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