A tall, lean man with long black hair steps out of his decrepit brick house and trudges through the snow in Detroit, Michigan. He works construction. He does hard labor all day and then returns to his run-down home to feed a woodstove to keep away the cold. He is in his sixties, he has grown daughters, and he has a degree in philosophy.
His name is Sixto Rodriguez, and in another part of the world, he’s bigger than Elvis.
The Art Theatre Co-op in downtown Champaign kicked off its February Documentary Fest this past Sunday with Searching for Sugar Man, a smooth, soulful bit of pop-rock mythology. Written and directed by Malik Bendjelloul, this absorbing film tells an enthralling tale of artistry, fan worship, investigative journalism, and dreams realized.
The premise of the film, for a lover of music, is both simple and elegant: two South African fans of an obscure American singer-songwriter attempt to uncover the truth behind his perceived failure and apparent death, only to find that he is alive, well, and completely unaware of his stardom on another continent. If this were a scripted, dramatic work, it would be easy to imagine the cliché, heartstring-pulling shenanigans that Disney and/or Dennis Quaid might get up to. But as it is, Searching for Sugar Man is a stripped-down affair with just a handful of talking-head interviews and a serious focus on the music of the man known as Rodriguez.
And that’s because the music, dear reader, is what really matters. Sixto Rodriguez might be the mysterious heart of the story, and the two avid fans — Steve Segerman, a record store owner, and Craig Bartholomew-Strydom, a music journalist — might be the engaging detectives on his trail, but none of it would have happened at all without the solid, lyrical songs that inspired the artist and the fans alike.
In 1970, after being discovered in a smoky club called The Sewer by a couple of record producers, Rodriguez released his debut album, Cold Fact. This album, with its Dylanesque storytelling and edgy poetry, disappeared without a trace from the U.S. music charts. That should have been the end of the story; but, as fate would have it, the album made its way to Apartheid-era South Africa and into the hands of young, white music lovers in need of a philosophical knock to the head. Suddenly, Cold Fact was all over Cape Town and other areas of South Africa, inspiring young people to challenge the status quo and making a guitar hero out of its creator, a shadowy figure about whom they knew very little.
Years later, after rumors of the singer’s death had grown to the level of folklore, Segerman and Bartholomew-Strydom joined together to uncover the truth and wound up not only finding their idol, but bringing him to South Africa to enjoy the rock-star treatment he had given up on ever realizing back in the States.
It’s an inspiring tale, full of talent and love. The interviews with music professionals, surprisingly eloquent bricklayers and bartenders, as well as Rodriguez’s adoring daughters paint a portrait of an unassuming man whose gift changed people’s lives. The best part, for a movie lover, for a music lover, for a lover of art and love and the good in humanity is that those changed lives wound up changing his.
Searching for Sugar Man is an uplifting gem of a film, and it will continue to play at the Art as part of Doc Fest. Sure it’s already out on DVD, but do yourself a favor and see it on the big screen. Go to the Art and experience this with some strangers. That’s how stories like this spread.
That’s how people like Rodriguez become legends.
*Oh, and if it sweetens the pot any, on the night this film opened the Doc Fest at the Art, it also won the BAFTA (British equivalent of the Academy Award) for Best Documentary.