Searching for Sugar Man
Sadly, this is my final Sundance screening write-up. It was fun while it lasted...
What's it About: Searching for Sugar Man was the World Cinema Documentary category's audience award winner here at the festival. Tonight's screening was actually a "Best of the Fest" screening for Utah residents. Fun... for free. The documentary follows two South Africans as they search to uncover the story behind Rodriguez, the Mexican-American singer (from Detroit) who became one of the most popular musicians among South Africans.
What About it: I hate doing this, but... umm... SPOILER ALERT. I hate giving away too much of the plot or background of a movie. But it'd be almost impossible for me to write about it without giving away massive amounts of the story... and what a story it is. Here's the deal about Rodriguez (that'd be his stage name... and surname. His full name is Sixto Rodriguez): He was a Detroit musician (a kind of neo-Bob Dylan Mexican-American folk singer) who released two albums in the early 1970s that would have flopped if only they would have been a bit more successful (what I'm trying to say is that they were beyond flops...). He was cut from his label before he finished making his third album. In America, he was a non-entity. In Apartheid South Africa, however, his music was beyond popular. The circumstances of how his music found its way to South Africa was a bit murky, but supposedly it was attributed to an American girl who brought the music to her South African boyfriend and from there it took off and eventually became something of a soundtrack to the white anti-Apartheid movement. South Africans couldn't get enough of his music... the only problem: by all accounts, Rodriguez- despondent over his inability to make it in the music business- killed himself on stage during one performance. His legacy was the voice of a movement.. and yet he never had a clue of his impact.
And South Africans never had a clue that Americans largely didn't know who he was. By chance, one South African (forgive me, I didn't catch his name) ran into an American who was looking to get her hands on a Rodriguez record, complaining about how she couldn't find one anywhere in the States. The South African was stunned. How was it that an American had to travel to South Africa in order to purchase a record by an artists who was- in his mind and the minds of many of his countrymen- bigger than Elvis? This inspired him to investigate just who this enigmatic folk singer was and what were the details behind his untimely demise. He was later joined by another South African- a journalist- and worked diligently to get to the bottom of the Rodriguez mystery.
And... what did they find? Rodriguez was very much alive and working- as he pretty much always had- as a manual laborer in Detroit. (He more or less only moonlighted as a musician... the cost of not making it big). From there, they tracked Rodriguez down, learned his story, and brought him to South Africa to perform in a series of sold out concerts.
Taken from the vantage of the South Africans (and director Malik Bendjelloul talked to a number of them beyond the two principal investigators) it was an incredible story. This larger-than-life mysterious persona who had meant so much to so many and was assumed dead was still alive. It would be as though someone tracked down a very much alive John Lennon... only if John Lennon was completely disregarded in the UK and was working in a pig rendering plant. (To this point, Bendjelloul interviewed a number of Rodriguez's manual laborer co-workers and many of them didn't even know he had put out two albums and was essentially a folk hero to a number of South Africans.) And despite an inherent lack of resonance, the story portrayed in the documentary was absolutely incredible.
It's just a shame that the movie itself was less impressive...
And by that, I don't mean it wasn't entertaining. It was. It's just that Bendjelloul and company's exuberance didn't match their skills as filmmakers. The pacing of the doc was off. It seemed to take forever for them to provide the basic background and set-up for the story. Then, in turn, the investigation and discovery stories seemed incredibly rushed... to the point where these elements actually felt a bit slight. Beyond that, Bendjelloul had a frustrating tendency to raise intriguing questions only to let them linger and eventually remain unanswered. Among them: what exactly happened to all the money Rodriguez should have made selling approximately 500,000 albums in South Africa? And why was it reported that Rodriguez had killed himself on stage? How did this story get started? And what did Rodriguez himself actually think of it? These were all either raised directly or hinted at but never did Bendjelloul seem to even attempt to come to an outright answer. Instead,he focused on the basics of the incredible story- the long lost folk hero had come back to life! (He also spent a great deal of time providing a profile of exactly who Rodriguez is-no problem there... turns out Rodriguez is a really interesting cat). I feel like they missed an opportunity to delve deeper into the story, to provide a more complete picture. Instead, we were left with an admittedly cool story, a rushed narrative, and an introduction to a really interesting character. Pretty cool... but a bit... I don't know shallow? No..not entirely... maybe.... incomplete. Yes. Incomplete. There were definitely some details- intriguing details- that seemed to be missing.
The Bottom Line: Again, even if it technically was a bit sloppy, Searching for Sugar Man did unveil a really, really awesome story. It also included some genuinely chill-inducing moments, like when Rodriguez walks out on stage during his first visit to South Africa in 1998. Hmm. 1998. The search and discovery actually took place nearly 15 years ago. Kind of begs the question of why the story is just being told now...and unfortunately that is just one of many that is left unanswered by the end of the film. Was it a nice film? Yes, sure. And it's easy to see why audiences fell for it. It wasn't just feel-good, it was feel-great. An interesting documentary? Easily. But was it a great movie on the whole? No. Good maybe. But not great... not that there's anything wrong with that...
Grade: B
One More Thing: Searching for Sugar Man was preceded by a short film whose sole purpose was to thank the small army of volunteers who made Sundance possible. I don't really have much to say about it... other than that it was- on the whole- a better production than Song of the Spindle. And more meaningful. Yep. Just thought I'd share...
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