Review of Searching for Sugar Man (2012) by Rishi R — 28 Feb 2013

This year's Best Documentary winner at the Oscars, "Searching for Sugarman" is a fairy tale and a fantastical one at that. It tells the story of Sixto Rodriguez a Rock Icon who didn't know he was one.

Rodriguez made a couple of records in the late 60's after being discovered at a local bar in Detroit by record producers who saw immense potential. His second record sold just 6 copies in the US and he was promptly dropped by the label following which he simply disappeared in to obscurity.

Halfway across the globe a bootlegged copy of "Cold Fact" his first album made it's way on to South Africa and spawned anthems for the anti apartheid movement turning Rodriguez in to a legendary icon.

He was more popular than Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and the Beatles but he knew nothing about it and South Africa knew nothing about him either other than the fact he was American and that he was dead. Rumours circulated that he had committed suicide on stage by setting himself ablaze or by shooting himself and that was all they knew about him.

Eventually two fans in the late 90s set out to discover what happened to him and this documentary is all about that. A brilliantly structured feature more so considering the limited footage and the lapse of time between the late 90s and now this is a remarkable achievement though from a Documentary Feature perspective one may sense flaws.

What grips the viewer is the mystery surrounding the search and then eventually the moving account of one talented individual unlike any celebrity that you may have known. Watch this even if you're not one for documentaries, if this doesn't move you nothing will.

Produced by the same Simon Chinn, the man behind the Oscar winning "Man on Wire" and directed by debutante Malik Bendjelloui.