Movie review: Searching for Sugar Man

Hot off its win of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, Searching for Sugar Man arrives in the Czech Republic without much publicity or fanfare but is a film well worth your time.

Recounting a tale almost too tall to be credible, the Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul travels the world, from Cape Town to Detroit to Hollywood, to track down the major players in a drama that unfolded on both sides of the Atlantic starting in the early 1970s.

We hear the story of an unknown singer-songwriter performing in small smoky bars in the rundown center of the Motor City, where on cold winter nights the lyrics would drift through the noise and the drinking and stick with anyone who bothered to pay attention. The singer wasn't looking to make an impact on the audience, but one couldn't help admiring the wisdom and sometimes the pain of the poetry in the lyrics.

This man was Sixto Rodriguez, and when he was discovered by some record producers, they thought they had found the next Bob Dylan. His first album, Cold Fact, was recorded and released in 1970 but sold so poorly that by the time his second record was put out the following year, the label thought it best to relieve him of his contract.

He didn't give up on performing, but it was never the center of his life, and he spent most of his time doing what he could get paid for: construction and renovation in the housing industry. He has lived in the same Detroit house for more than 40 years.

Meanwhile, completely unbeknown to him, he was becoming a star in a place he had never been to, and it's still unclear what the genesis of his foreign fame was: In the 1970s and 1980s, despite no one knowing who Rodriguez was or what had become of him after his two albums, his records had phenomenal sales figures in South Africa, at that time mostly cut off from the international scene because of its racial segregation policy of apartheid.

The South African producers who sold his records in the country said they had either heard the legendary stories of his death - some said he set himself on fire during a performance; others claimed he was so disappointed by the lack of support at another show he blew his brains out onstage - or they thought he would never consider coming to South Africa because of politics and what they considered his "obvious" stardom.

Actually, he never had any idea, because those who made money from his records never told him. A very powerful interview takes place in Hollywood with the erstwhile chairman of Motown Records, Clarence Avant, who states that though Rodriguez was one of the best singers he ever worked with, it is pointless to look for where the money went. Avant is an odious fellow, getting riled up and defensive very quickly, and it is clear where the blame for Rodriguez's situation lies.

In the meantime, the artist's popularity surpassed that of Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones in South Africa, and a few music buffs tried to track down the man, or at least piece together his life story as they were more or less convinced that he had died early in his career. What would come of their investigation is something quite remarkable: After decades out of the limelight, Rodriguez went to South Africa in March 1998 to perform six sold-out concerts for people who had grown up listening to his music.

From the opening scene, in which Stephen Segerman drives along the stunning Chapman's Peak Drive mountain pass on the western side of the Cape Peninsula, it is made clear what a friendly influence South Africa and its people would be on the story of Rodriguez. Although it is easy to say the weather was merely dependent on the time of year when the documentary was shot, one comes away from watching the film with very strong images of a warm, welcoming South Africa and, by contrast, the icy, desolate cityscape of Detroit, where Rodriguez has toiled all his life without any kind of acclaim.

The beginning of the film does use the snow-swept Detroit in an interesting way: In a few rare instances, black-and-white scenes turn to color and static shots become mobile when Rodriguez's songs start playing on the soundtrack.

One shot in the film, however, is particularly irritating: the staged arrival of Rodriguez at Cape Town International Airport in 1998, which consists of silhouettes, starkly contrasted with a painted orange backdrop of Table Mountain, moving toward a horde of waiting paparazzi. It is out of place in a film that draws so much on almost-unreal reality, and it undercuts the power of the facts. Luckily, this scene is complemented by photos of his real arrival at the airport.

The film briefly touches on apartheid and shows footage of anti-government demonstrations and police beatings. This is important in conveying the feeling of oppression that Rodriguez's music helped people to cope with in some way, but the focus is still mostly on the singer's lack of knowledge about his fame on the other side of the world.

Searching for Sugar Man is truly inspirational and shows how small gestures can lead to big things. With scenes all around the Cape Town city bowl, the film is also another reminder of the beauty of the city at the bottom of Africa, and it encourages further investigation of the country's rich (musical) history and its influences.

André Crous can be reached at
acrous@praguepost.com