The Indigo Girls will help kick off the 2023 Sundance Film Festival when they perform during Opening Night: A Taste of Sundance, presented by IMDbPro on Thursday, Jan. 19.
The Grammy Award-winning folk-rock duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, will be part of the evening that honors filmmakers and other storytellers who have ties to Sundance.
“We are excited to have the Indigo Girls perform at our opening night celebration and help kick off the Festival as we honor inspiring storytellers,” said Sundance Institute Chief Executive Officer Joana Vicente in a press release. “Emily Saliers and Amy Ray are bold independent artists who have spent their careers using their art to make an impact, like so many of the artists supported throughout the institute’s history.”
Ray and Saliers will perform after they premiere their new documentary, “It’s Only Life After All,” directed by Alexandria Bombach, earlier in the evening at 5 p.m. at the Ray Theatre.
The film looks back at the challenges and rewards of the duo’s 35-year career filled with political lyrics and activism for the LGBTQ+ community.
“We are honored that ‘It’s Only Life After All’ is premiering on opening night at Sundance Film Festival, and we look forward to playing live later that same evening,” Saliers said in a statement. “Sundance Institute supports the work of independent artists who bring to life the stories of the human condition, (and) it was a leap of faith to agree to participate in a documentary about ourselves. In fact, we weren’t quite sure why we were asked. However, the entire film team earned our trust throughout, and we feel proud to offer this look into our journey.”
Ray said while it was “somewhat uncomfortable” to examine themselves “so deeply and publicly,” the film sits within the duo’s “longview of life and art.”
“We have always hoped to be a catalyst for positive change and empower the individual to feel and celebrate their worth in this world,” she said. “Director Alexandria Bombach and the rest of the queer- and women-led film team put their heart and soul behind this documentary. It has been heartening to work with them and know that we are moving towards a day when all of us are clearly seen in our humanity.”
After cutting their teeth in the nightclubs in Atlanta, Georgia, the Indigo Girls first hit the national music scene in 1989 with their self-titled debut, which boasted the singles “Closer to Fine” and “Kid Fears.”
Since then the duo has released 16 studio albums, and hassold more than 15 million records worldwide.
As activists, the Indigo Girls have worked inside and outside the music industry on issues such as LGBTQ+ rights, immigration, education, capital punishment reform and Native American rights.
Ray and Saliers co-founded Honor the Earth, a nonprofit dedicated to the survival of sustainable Native communities, Indigenous environmental justice and green energy solutions. Their fight has brought them to Utah with their opposition to storing nuclear waste on the Goshute reservation in Skull Valley.
Opening Night: A Taste of Sundance, a fundraiser for the institute’s year-round efforts that support independent voices from around the world through programming grants and other initiatives, will also honor storytellers who have been connected to Sundance throughout the years.
Sundance will honor “Black Panther” filmmaker Ryan Coogler with the inaugural Sundance Institute | Variety Visionary Award, which recognizes Sundance Institute alumni who have established careers that showcase visionary work with a commitment to impactful storytelling.
The institute will also give Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Luca Guadagnino the International Icon Award, which recognizes an international auteur who creates distinctive cinematic universes and has made a lasting impact on filmmaking, most notably through a commitment to storytelling and an unwavering creative vision.
Other honors will include the Vanguard Award for Nonfiction to comedian, director and producer W. Kamau Bell and the Vanguard Award for Fiction to writer and director Nikyatu Jusu.
Past Vanguard Award honorees include Coogler, Siân Heder, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Radha Blank, Lulu Wang, Dee Rees, Damien Chazelle, Marielle Heller, Benh Zeitlin and Boots Riley.