SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN
Sony Pictures Classics: Anniversary Screening
DOCS
US 2012, 86 min, Director: Malik Bendjelloul
Detroit-born Sixto Rodriguez may be the best singer-songwriter you’ve never heard of. Though a respected early 1970s folk musician, he faded into obscurity after his first two albums failed to sell. In fact, it almost seemed as if he winked out of existence. But in South Africa, Rodriguez—sometimes called the “Sugar Man” after one of his songs—became a hero, and when the Apartheid government banned that song his legend only grew. Malik Bendjelloul’s Oscar®-winning documentary tells the uplifting story of how one person can galvanize a people, even without knowing it. Plus, Rodriguez’s songs are genuinely great, his clever lyrics performed with a voice that mixes Bob Dylan’s raspiness with the sweetness of Bread’s David Gates. Searching for Sugar Man is that rare movie that tells a great story and feeds the soul. —David Riedel
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