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Tonight, KCET airs “SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN,” from 9-10:30 pm, with a repeat from 11:30 pm-1 am. Within a year of its 2012 release, the film won an OSCAR, the DGA “Best Feature" award, and the "IDA Documentary Awards.”
On OSCAR night 2013, “Searching for Sugar Man,” the riveting music biopic and investigative journey of discovery by filmmaker MALIK BENDJELLOUL, won “Best Documentary Film.” It is the story of rejection, unknown fame for an artist living in obscurity, and remarkable rediscovery. It’s the story (so far) of remarkable singer-songwriter SIXTO RODRIGUEZ, a man for whom acclaim was delayed, but ultimately not denied. It’s a film about hope, inspiration and the resonating power of music.
On February 6, 2013, the Guide’s editor attended a special “Reel Talk” screening of “Searching for Sugar Man” that included a Q & A with director Bendjelloul. (The Guide had alerted readers of their chance to attend that special screening.) The film had just won at the Director's Guild of America (DGA) the previous Friday night, capturing the “Best Feature Award” at the International Documentary Association's 2012 “IDA Documentary Awards” at DGA.
Musically, the film won the “Creative Recognition Award” for “Best Music” for RODRIGUEZ's original songs and BENDJELLOUL's additional score.
Back in April of 2013, the Guide ran a feature story that RODRIGUEZ was performing at The Orpheum Theatre in L.A. it was a very big deal. SIXTO RODRIGUEZ, aka the singularly named RODRIGUEZ, is the musician profiled in “SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN,” and that April night three years ago was his only L.A. show. Yes, he could (and can!) still sing and play guitar, and he can stir the longings of the soul.
RODRIGUEZ’s story remains one of the music world’s most unusual tales, reaching back to the 1970s. An obscure debut LP by a Detroit singer-songwriter becomes a source of hope and inspiration to the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa. Now, the story of Rodriguez and his oft-bootlegged cult album “Cold Fact” is the basis for “Searching for Sugar Man,” the riveting new documentary by filmmaker MALIK BENDJELLOUL. Light In The Attic Records, in partnership with Sony Legacy, are honored to announce the release of the original motion picture soundtrack, comprising tracks from “Cold Fact” and its 1971 follow-up “Coming From Reality” – reissued in 2008 and 2009, respectively, by the Light In The Attic label.
The story of RODRIGUEZ the musician begins back in the late ‘60s, when he was discovered in a Detroit bar by renowned producers DENNIS COFFEY and MIKE THEODORE. They recorded a 1970 album that they believed was going to secure his reputation as one of the greatest recording artists of his generation. Instead, that record, “Cold Fact,” bombed, and despite the release of a second LP, entitled “Coming From Reality,” produced by STEVE ROWLAND, fame eluded Rodriguez. So he drifted into obscurity, not knowing he was becoming the subject to some fantastic rumors of a dramatic onstage death.
He was widely rumored to have died in bizarre ways, including a widely-believed version that had set himself on fire at the end of a performance where an audience had talked louder and louder over his singing. That was after he had faded into obscurity in the U.S. as just another singer-songwriter who failed to catch-on.
But, unknown to RODRIGUEZ, “Cold Fact” took on a life of its own when a bootleg recording found its way into the repressive apartheid-era South Africa, where everyone – not just black citizens – were subjected to curfews, bans against public gatherings, and strict regulation of what they could see, read, or hear on radio and television. “Cold Fact” was banned by the government, and that set then stage for the album to become a national phenomenon that transcended generations over the next two decades. It was the soundtrack for a resistance movement of liberal South African youth.
Meanwhile, back in Detroit, Rodriguez was working in construction and renovation, and disgusted with what he saw of government officials’ neglect of the poor and of deteriorating infrastructure, he even ran for mayor. All the while, Rodriguez remained totally unaware that he was not just a local folk hero, but had become an iconic household name – thousands of miles away, across an expanse of ocean.
Decades passed. Then, two South African fans, STEPHEN ‘SUGAR’ SEGERMAN and CRAIG BARTHOLOMEW-STRYDOM, set out to learn, once and for all, what had really happened to their hero. Their investigation led them to a story more extraordinary than any of the many myths they’d heard. Their story forms the basis of “Searching for Sugar Man.”
Thanks to two obsessed fans who simply set out to learn the man's true fate, we have an OSCAR-winning, acclaimed chronicle about the rediscovery of Sixto Rodriguez, and a context for rediscovering a remarkable artist in the man himself.
Rodriguez remarked in 2013, “I describe myself as ‘musico-politico’,” adding, “I was born and bred in Detroit, four blocks from the city center. Back then, I was influenced by the urban sounds that were going on around me all the time.”
His artist’s perspective is undiminished. That is evident as he continues, “Music is art and art is a cultural force. As far as my work from Detroit comparing to the South African Apartheid, the similarities echo. The placards of the 1970s in the United States read things like ‘We Want Jobs,’ and ‘Stop the War’ – I was looking at the music from a working class perspective that was relevant, as it turns out, to the kids in South Africa."
Call some friends and have the popcorn ready. If you can't watch either screening tonight, capture it on your video recording device. It's outstanding and memorable, and no other L.A. tv broadcasts are scheduled.
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♪ The ACOUSTIC AMERICANA MUSIC GUIDE endeavors to bring you NEWS and views of interest to artists everywhere, more specifically to musicians and the creative community and music makers and fans of acoustic and Folk-Americana music, both traditional and innovative forms. From the deepest roots to today’s acoustic renaissance, that’s our beat. We provide a wealth of resources, including a HUGE catalog of acoustic-friendly venues, and schedules and inside info on FESTIVALS and select performances in Southern California in venues monumentally large and intimately small and cozy. We cover workshops and other events for artists and folks in the music industry, and all kinds o’ things in the world of acoustic and Americana and accessible classical music. From washtub bass to musical spoons to oboe to viola to banjo to squeezebox, from Djangostyle to new-fangled-old-time string band music, from sweet Cajun fiddle to bluegrass and pre-bluegrass Appalachian mountain music to all the roots of the blues and where the music is headed now.
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