Movie Review for "Searching for Sugar Man"

Searching for Sugar Man

In search of lost music.

Who is Rodriguez? "In the middle of the 70s, if you went into any middle-class home, white and liberal, who had some pop albums, you would always find: Abbey Road, by The Beatles; Bridge Over Troubled Water, by Simon & Garfunkel; and always would see Cold Fact, by Rodriguez. For us, this was one of the most famous albums of history. "This sentence above was said by Stephen "Sugar Man" Segerman, the owner of a record shop in Cape Town, South Africa, who earned the nickname "Sugar Man" in reference to the absolute success of the classic song with the same name, written by the American folk singer Rodriguez. Except for the last album, the statement would perfectly fit on most of the occidental countries at that time. But then again, who is Rodriguez?

This descendant of Mexicans, immigrants in Detroit, whom moved to the city to work at the car industry, was, according to several testimonies of this documentary Searching For Sugar Man (2012), the author of the "soundtrack of our lives." The most popular singer in South Africa. As big and important as Elvis Presley, John Lennon and the Beatles. Bigger than Bob Dylan, bigger than the Rolling Stones. Without ever being known in his own country, his records and his songs served as the hymns for protests against apartheid, the dictatorial regime that segregated and oppressed South Africa decades ago. An artist who influenced all who came after him in the country. Simply one of the greatest myths of the musical world. He seemed to be a global phenomenon for South Africans living at that time, isolated from the rest of the world.

But for what reasons me and you, and probably anyone else in the world, music lovers, have never even heard of this genius, this poet and prophet who changed the world? That's what this documentary is about to investigate - providing surprising answers. Initially, the truth is that Rodriguez, despite the high quality of his music, never even made a minimum success in the United States (it has been said that his debut album sold only six copies in America), nor anywhere else except in South Africa. He was fired from the label shortly after the recording of his second LP. Never played on radios. His success in the Africa country was never known to anyone outside the boards. It is claimed that, possibly in the early '70s, an American girl visiting Africa took one of his records to a boyfriend who was there, and then copies on K7 tapes were recorded, the hype began and the subsidiary label in South Africa officially launched the records , selling over half a million copies only at that time. The impact was so big that some of his songs were censored by the regime. The only news people had about Rodriguez in South Africa was that he had the most shocking and grotesque death of the entire history of rock. At the height of depression and anguish, he was on a live show playing to his fans, as he filled his body with gasoline and committed a barbaric suicide by incinerating himself in front of the audience, dying on stage. A so tragic and fictitious ending that only added mystique to his legend.

The 90’s came out with digital format of music available to a wider public around the world, and then people started to listen to music on CD, and the global village gained force and support with the internet. Two crucial factors that contributed to bring new life to the cult around Rodriguez’s image. The re-launch of his two albums on compact discs contained, on the pages following the cover, the question: does anyone knows something about Rodriguez? A musical detective? Because it was just when Internet came out that the South Africans finally realized Rodriguez was not a world celebrity as they once believed. And the question you probably already have done in your mind: where, and to whom, went all the money from the sales of his hundreds of thousands of copies sold? Would he have left children? Had family, heirs? What would have to say his past music producers? The owner of the label? Most perhaps the important: did Rodriguez really die in such a brutal way?

In this curious and intriguing story, Searching for Sugar Man is a documentary with a brilliant format. The images of the testimonials are merged with general shots of Detroit and Cape Town, showing deserted streets, a bleak environment, but at the same time deeply poetic. There is an immense melancholy and loneliness emanating from the streetlights, mixed with dusk and dawn. The cinematography is splendid, a masters work with sophisticated lighting and geometric composition, something not exactly common to be found in documentaries - especially the so-called "direct cinema" or "cinema verité". The camera is on the tripod. Here the documentary follows the direction of the highly produced set, of previous script, and everything from editing to sound design is carefully calculated to cause the sensation of a thriller; there is also animation effects and an ostensible presence of color grading, which never makes it a documentary less veracious.

For the atmosphere of this slight return to the climate of the 70s, many images were shot on Super 8mm film. A curiousity, revealed by the filmmakers in a recent article at American Cinematographer magazine, is that the 8mm film roll were over near the end of shootings, and as a last-minute decision before this feature was complete, a few takes were shot using an iPhone App that emulates the Super 8 film. As has been said by researcher Bill Nichols in lectures, great scholar and documentary researcher, the cell phone will become more and more often used to produce documentary footage, both in “direct cinema” style and also in finest productions like this. Searching for Sugar Man was, deservedly, the winner of best documentary in the Oscar ceremony in 2013 – and have won many other awards all over the world. It broadcasts a wide message. Without raising a flag or the wrist, it talks about the transformative role of music anywhere, at any time. Talks about the historical issue of the sometimes tension relationship between Americans and immigrants, children of immigrants, especially from Mexico, even more tense during the 70’s. Talks about the hostility and the dirty games of the music industry. Talks about the emptiness of the quest for fame. Talks about Detroit’s crisis, which already has being the subject of several other prominent documentaries, as in Requiem for Detroit? (2010) and Detropia (2012), as in fiction, in Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino (2008). Talks about a star that once were at the high top of fame, as in other documentaries, such as Dig! (2004) and Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008).

But above all, Searching for Sugar Man speaks straight to the heart of the audience. It is very difficult not to be touched by this plot, with the wonderful folk songs played by Rodriguez, the man with such a tough story of life. A movie for those who love music. The real music, not that one recorded and promoted just in order to generate attention at any costs. Not overloading nostalgia nor the melodrama, it is a documentary that talks about ideals - music made as an ideal of life, songs that represent an ideology for freedom, consciously or not, but at a time where left-wing utopias still existed and, in a certain way, were necessary. And that is why those songs sounded so libertarian.