The Story of the Real Rodriguez
Searching for Sugar Man, a 2012 Swedish/British documentary directed by Malik Bendjelloul, is the story of Rodriquez, a Detroit musician whose lyrical protest albums were recorded in 1970 and 1971. Though Rodriguez disappeared from the music scene in America and became a demolition man–unbeknownst to him- he became a star and his songs the anthem of anti-apartheid Afrikaners in South Africa during the seventies.
According to South Africans, he was more famous than Dylan and the Stones, more popular than Elvis. The documentary, inspired by rumors of his death, is partly a detective story and partly a music documentary but mostly a tribute to the passion of Afrikaners and the philosophical equanimity of Rodriquez. He makes a triumphant return to the stage. The film has been nominated for an academy award.
The director, Malik Bendjelloul, ran out of money and finished making the film on his iPhone with a Chinese-made app that cost $1.99. The film and the filmmaker neatly synthesize concept and artistic creativity in a triumph of simplicity and technology. I am reminded of Robert Rodriguez’s original film, El Mariachi, and Roger Moore’s Roger and Me.
The sweetness of Sugar Man is an inspiration and Rodriquez himself is portrayed as just about the coolest human being you’ve ever met. One of his daughters says people in Detroit need some good news. Well, Rodriguez, in Searching for Surgar Man, is just about the best natural born hero a workingman could dream up and the film focuses on the spirit of resiliency to inspire the denizens of Detroit.
You can rent it at Video Casa. And hey, if you see Parking Lot Lou around, give’em a fiver: He’s from Detroit. And remember as one of the journalists in the movie says, “These are the days of miracle and wonder…” Play the album, KTAO, play it.
Postscript. By the way, Searching for Sugar Man’s counterpoint in narrative film making is Beasts of the Southern Wild, a triumph of human survival over adversity starring a six-year old, Quvenzhané Wallis, who will blow your socks off as an actress and human being. Beasts, too, has been nominated for an academy award. Directed by Benh Zeitlin, Beasts is the product of collaboration among film school students and a community of enthusiasts in the delta below New Orleans. It’s as amazing as Sugarman. Both films satisfy the deep yearning among Americans for anti-coporate counterpoint, life in the raw, where survival counts as exemplary of the human spirit.