Searching for Sugar Man (2012)
Genre: Documentary / Biography
Duration: 86 minuten
Country:
Sweden / United Kingdom / Finland
Directed by: Malik Bendjelloul
Stars: Rodriguez and Dennis Coffey
IMDb score:
8,2 (74.657)
Releasedate: 30 June 2012
Searching for Sugar Man plot
"Great Art Always Survives"
A story about hope, inspiration and the resounding power of music. Rodriguez was the greatest 1970s rock icon in the United States... who never was. His albums were acclaimed, but sales lagged far behind. He disappeared into obscurity, surrounded by rumors of a gruesome death. However, an illegal copy of one of his records ended up in South Africa and his music became a phenomenal success there. In the country that was plagued by apartheid at the time, his music was embraced en masse by the oppressed population.
Reviews & comments
Fisico (moderator films)
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- 10009 messages
- 5398 votes
The fact that I had never heard of Ian Curtis (Corbijns Control) made me quite an oddball. I had never heard of this illustrious Rodriguez either, but I was anything but the only one as it turns out. In that respect a rather bizarre documentary about a "nobody" who turned out to be half a cult hero in South Africa without having a link with that country. Bizarre that he didn't break through in the US at all, despite the fact that his music isn't that bad. Sometimes you have to be a bit lucky too.
Pleasant to watch, but I didn't really find it compelling. Certainly not a documentary that belongs in the top 250, but so be it. It all seems a bit exaggerated to me, although there is nothing wrong with that in itself. After all, a biography always plays with itself a little bit. Well made, but nothing more. Something for the enthusiasts, I think...
Translated from Dutch · View original
mrklm
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- 10183 messages
- 9284 votes
In the early 1970s, a young woman took a tape of American singer Rodriguez's album "Cold Fact" to South Africa. In one way or another, Rodriguez's music spread among Afrikaners who drew inspiration from it for their opposition to Apartheid. According to Stephen “Sugar” Segerman and Willem Möller, Rodriguez was “bigger than The Rolling Stones” at the time. And Rodriguez was rumored to have shot himself in the head during a performance. Stephen Segerman spent years researching Rodriguez in hopes of learning more about this man, of whom there seems to be no trace. The search, however, has some very unexpected turns and a beautiful outcome, although the conversation with Clarence Avant, and owner of the record label under which Rodriguez released his music, breaks down when Segerman asks what happened to the proceeds of the tens of thousands of records that were sold in South Africa. Africa have been sold. But Rodriguez and his music steal the show.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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