In the modern world we live in, it is nearly impossible to
believe that any information would be impossible for us to find. Apart from certain
countries which have a strict government or military regime, everyone has
access to information anywhere in the world. Therefore it becomes difficult to
imagine a rockstar who doesn’t even know he is famous, or his fans not knowing
anything about him – not even if he is alive or dead. But this is the story of
Searching for Sugar Man which was a 2012 documentary directed by Malik
Bendjelloul about events spanning a timeframe from the 1970s to the late 1990s
between South Africa and the United States of America.
In the 1970s, the situation in South Africa was strife because
of Apartheid rule. No information was allowed to enter the country and the
state of the country was not relayed out to others because of an oppressive
government system. The news and other media were highly censored as everything
passed through the careful eye of the government’s departments. At this time,
the albums of Rodriguez, a previously unheard of musician, reached the record stores
in South Africa. His protest songs were apt for the situation and inspired many
of the political activists and a few musicians as well. However, because of
lack of information about the artist himself, rumours spread that he had
committed suicide on stage in the United States as a form of poetic expression.
In the late 1990s, with the end of Apartheid and more likely sources of
information emerging, a record store owner and a music journalist joined forces
to find every piece of information they could collect about Rodriguez and find
the truth about whether he actually committed suicide or was still alive.
Searching for Sugar Man paints an almost unreal story.
Although the premise of the documentary does occur during the oppressive
Apartheid regime, it is highly improbable that an entire nation would be
unaware of simple facts about a rockstar that they rated so highly. The strict
flow of information in and out of the country does go to show that it would be
possible for such an event to occur. Even the censorship where one of the songs
is scratched off the vinyl goes to show that an oppressive political system can
control flow of information the way it wants to. The fact that Rodriguez wasn’t
aware of his own fame could probably go down as a collective result of his lack
of success in his own country coupled with information being withheld from him
by the owner of the record label he was signed to.
The documentary carefully plots out Rodriguez’s failure in
America through the eyes of the men that produced his album. It then goes to
South Africa where his fans speak about the inspiration that he provided during
their freedom struggle, something he was entirely unaware of. It documents the
story of two fans that set out to find information about him once the
oppressive regime had ended and how they went about collecting facts and
contacting his family before they could finally consider their mission
accomplished. There are many excerpts of people who worked with him in the
United States – from construction workers to record producers – as well as
others in South Africa; musicians and anti-Apartheid activists he inspired. The
documentary also has clips of old video footage and photographs being used
wherever appropriate. However, the documentary fails to acknowledge the fame
and success Rodriguez did enjoy in Australia; it chooses to focus solely on the
situation in South Africa and the two fans that set out to find him.
The documentary uses original music from Rodriguez’s past
albums, which he is credited and receives royalties for. The music is original
and it is difficult to understand why his music wasn’t well appreciated, but it
is easy to see why this documentary can be highly rated.
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