"Sugar man"
Sweden/United Kingdom 2012, directed by Malik Bendjelloul starring: Stephen Segerman, Dennis Coffey, Mike Theodore, Dan Dimaggio, Jerome Ferretti, Steve Rowland.
The film was critically acclaimed, receiving the Audience Award at Sundance Film Festival, as well as at other film festivals in New York, Los Angeles, and Melbourne. It won the Academy Award for the Best Documentary Feature.
“Sugar Man” is a Swedish-British documentary film written and directed by Malik Bendjelloul. The film’s protagonist Sixto Rodriguez composed its musical score. The documentary presents the unbelievable and meandering real life story of Sixto Rodriguez, a singer who was destined to be bigger than Bob Dylan but who remained unknown for most of his life. At the end of the 1960s in one of Detroit bars, two esteemed music producers heard an undiscovered but impressively talented singer/songwriter. Together, they recorded an album, hoping to make it big and turn the musician into a major star. However, the record happened to be a commercial fiasco: virtually nobody was keen on buying it. Soon the singer disappeared into oblivion if one does not take into account quirky rumours concerning his alleged suicide while live in concert. A few years later his music was pirated and smuggled to apartheid-torn South Africa. Over the course of two decades the records became extremely popular, reaching cult status, outselling Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones, the fact that was not brought to Rodriguez’s attention at that time.
In the 1990s two South African fans of Sixto Rodriguez decided to trace their idol and musical hero. The director gives them voice, amplifying the story of the people who devoted a considerable part of their lives to seek out the musician. Not only did they set up a website in the 1990s when the internet was still in its infancy (the website facilitated the time-consuming process of looking for Rodriguez), but they meticulously and painstakingly analysed his lyrics so as to pinpoint the musician’s whereabouts. Eventually, they reached Detroit.
In 1998, accompanied by his daughters, Rodriguez visited South Africa. His concerts in the country were greeted with enthusiasm, intensity, and appreciation reminiscent of the reception of the concerts of the Doors or the Rolling Stones in the 1960s.