Searching For Sugarman

[ralpht]

The movie wins the People's Choice awards.Producers Mike Theodore and Dennis Coffey can be proud of the fact that, although a little late [[40 years) the album is getting the attention it deserves. Pictured is Fred Saxon with Rodriguez at the awards show.. This win adds to the already won Sundance Film Festival. I guess good things truly come to those who wait. Here is hoping for an Oscar.
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[ralpht]

For those of you not familiar with this story, briefly: Mike and Dennis brought Rodriguez into Tera Shirma to record an album. And nothing happened, other than the album would, years later, catch fire with the South African civil rights movement making Rodriguez bigger than Elvis Presley. The problem was, it was thought that he was no longer living, having committed suicide on stage after a performance. The movie explains the search for Rodriguez, eventually found still living in Detroit. I urge all of you to see this movie.

[calvin]

Thanks for the tip, Ralph. I just ordered it on DVD from Amazon UK. Looking forward to watching it next weekend!

[ralpht]

I'm sure you will enjoy it, Calvin. I need to order my own copy, also.

[R. Mark Desjardins]

Last evening, in Vancouver, Canada, The Ridge, one of the last large theatres capable of showing 35 mm prints of films, doomed for the wrecking ball, screened "Searching For Sugarman," as a farewell swansong for long standing patrons.

Although Detroit musician Rodriguez wasn't signed to Motown records, he did release two albums in the early 70's on Sussex. Dennis Coffey, one of the Funk Brothers was SO taken with him as a musician, he become involved with his second recording. There is definitely some Detroit funk evident in the recording. I definitely heard some soulful bongo playing on the musical tracks utilized in the documentary.

The career for a musician can be cruel and totally unpredictable, much as The Supremes sang in "The Happening," about that damn "fickle finger of fate." For some unknown reason, airplay in North American and recognition beyond local Detroit audiences eluded Rodriguez at the time of the initial releases of these two watershed recordings.

Make no mistake about it, this documentary is a must see. Even one of the former Motown Chairmen of The Board plays a role in this real life biography. While Rodriguez may not be selling hundreds of thousands of CDs, thankfully due to the sleuthing of fans in South Africa, where he was revered, the search to uncover and background information on this outstanding talent was undertaken, his later years will prove to be much more comfortable for him.

Definitely seek this film out! Best seen on a large screen, it may be more readily be available in DVD format. In my humble opinion, this film is as stunning and in its own way, as fascinating and awe inspiring as The Funk Brothers "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown." This documentary will make you want to get up and cheer!

[ralpht]

Mark,
To date, the film has won the prestigious Sundance Film Festival and the People's Choice award which puts it in the running for winning an Oscar. I agree, it is a MUST SEE.

[R. Mark Desjardins]

Ralph,
Winning an Oscar would surely make a 40 year career hibernation seem mighty sweet indeed! By the way, many thanks for all your hard and dedicated work keeping this site going and members in line! Smile!

[MotownSteve]

I first learned of Sixto Rodriguez on a 60 Minutes show. Most of his material is easily available. However, there is a CD of a South African concert I'd really like to download or buy. So far, no success.

[MotownSteve]

The film won Best Documentary at the EE BAFTA Awards.

[Methuselah2]

I got to see this film in December and it just hasn't left me yet. I found the movie to be intensely emotional in a way that caught me completely off-guard. And highly visual by the artwork that is continually displayed across the screen and by that of the film's makers and by the vivid pictures that are created by those who recount what had gone on, what had happened, and their attempts to understand and accept it. The search to make sense of how art and talent can sometimes be interrupted and, at the same time, take on a life of its own is relentlessly fascinating. And all the more so because of the man at the center of it, the man who had kept himself out of any search because he had found his own self very early on. Like the man himself, the film is overwhelming.

[ralpht]

Great review, Methuselah.

[mickeymac]

I have heard nothing but good things about this flick. I cant wait to see it.

[ralpht]

You will not be disappointed, Mickey, I promise you. By the way...good to see you.

[mickeymac]

Thanks Ralph, been really busy lately. Havent had a chance to post here as much as I would like to.

[MIKEW-UK]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2282780/Searching-For-Sugar-Man-The-Oscar-nominated-movie-filmed-iPhone.html

CONTAINS VIDEO AT BOTTOM OF ARTICLE

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[tsull1]

I saw this movie a couple months ago, loved it. I started a thread on it in this forum, hardly got any responses. Glad there's more interest this time. Not sure why it takes The Oscars to get people interested. This movie has been out for a quite awhile. Nevertheless, I'm glad people are enjoying it, I sure did.

[calvin]

It wasn't the Oscars that made me interested - to be honest, I couldn't care less about the Oscars, I can't stand them and all the hype, but that's a different topic. I never heard of the film until I saw this post from Ralph.

I also think the movie is very good. I've since bought his two LPs on cd. The second, Coming From Reality, also has 3 bonus tracks from "circa '72" - so after Coming From Reality - recorded with Mike Theodore & Dennis Coffey as producers. Were they planning a third LP?

They don't mention in the film that Rodriguez was also popular in Australia and New Zealand - enough so that he toured Australia in 1979 and 1981, the first time as a headliner and the second time with Midnight Oil, who were popular in Australia at the time but had not yet achieved international success. I read that his Australian record label, Blue Goose Music [[which had bought the Australian rights for his music) even released a live album, "Alive", on him from the 1979 tour. So he was not totally unaware that he had some degree of popularity outside the US, down under, though I can understand how he could have been unaware of his popularity in South Africa, as the country was quite isolated politically back then.

The mystery is, why didn't he make any impact in North America, as he did in some other places? His music is good, certainly good enough that he should have been able to make a career of it. One thing I've read is that his label, Sussex, was a subsidiary of Buddah and was focused on AM radio, and didn't have any connections to the FM market. His music was not suited for AM radio, it was definitely more suited to the FM dial including college radio stations.

The movie focuses on the South Africa angle, how he was popular there, how they found him, and his triumphant concert. Rodriguez himself remains somewhat enigmatic. While watching, there were a lot of questions I would have liked to have asked him. For example, when the two LPs flopped in the US, did he continue writing new songs, playing clubs, and doing something in music, or did he just throw in the towel completely? [[Well he did do those two tours of Australia, but that's not mentioned.) Did he consider moving to South Africa and pursuing his musical dreams after he saw how popular he was there? [[One of his daughters - shown in the film - married a South African she met while on that tour and did move there. )

Having seen - and enjoyed - the film, I'd like to learn more about him and his own story. I hope we will hear more from him, perhaps even some new music?

[calvin]

After writing the post above, I searched out reviews of the movie from Australia. I found this one right away - which is interesting, the author of this review saw Rodriguez perform at a music festival in Australia in 2007!

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/rodriguez-found-but-take-this-sweet-story-with-a-grain-of-salt-20121003-26znp.html

[calvin]

Ok, I'm back again. As I wrote, I enjoyed the movie very much but it left me with a lot of unanswered questions at the end, which is why I went hunting around on the web for more info. And there is a lot about him on the web from Australia - according to this website, he was big enough in the late 70s and early 80s that his albums went 5 times platinum there!

http://www.thevine.com.au/entertainment/movies/searching-for-sugar-man-myth-making-at-its-best/

Here's a website with some information about his live LP issued in Australia, including a cover photo and recording info [[dates, musicians):

http://sugarman.org/alive.html

And unlike South Africa, Rodriguez knew he was popular in Australia. So a big question I have is, where did all the money from those Australian sales go? It doesn't seem that Rodriguez got much of it, if anything at all - I hope he's got someone investigating this!

I saw the 60 Minutes piece on the movie. The director, Malik Bendjelloul, said that this story is like a classic fairy tale, something like Cinderella. It is, but it seems that it's more complicated than what he presented. It look like he conveniently left out details that didn't fit the narrative he wanted. I can understand why, the movie was almost certainly more successful because of this. Still, I'm sure that the "whole" story would be even more interesting, at least to me. And I'm glad that the movie brought his story and music to my attention - I hope to hear more from him!

[tmd]

Just saw it last night on Direct TV. Wow, what a great story- gave me goose bumps.
Great music, got to get the Cold Facts c.d. Great to see Coffey and Theadore getting their kudos so many years later.
Rodriquez is amazing and he has some grest songs.Highly recommend that you see this.
I am a movie buff- ranks right up there with SITSOM.
Loved it.

[MotownSteve]

Searching for the Sugar Man wins Oscar for Best Documentary!

[ralpht]

I am thrilled for this. The producer's comments thanking everyone should have mentioned the artist's producers, Mike Theodore and Dennis Coffey. I extend my congratulations to them.

[R. Mark Desjardins]

Searching For Sugar Man getting the nod for best Oscar documentary is fantastic. It is a jump for joy type of film, just like Standing In The Shadows Of Motown. I read that Rodriquez is starting work on his third album. I get shivers just thinking of what is pent up inside him after all these years.

[tmd]

Very happy to the city of Detroit and the Motown conections.

Well deserved

[Soul Sister]

Ecstatic this film won, can't wait to see it.

S.S.
***

[Methuselah2]

At the Oscars ceremony:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4hrjGgbGQY

[motown_marc]

Although I knew of the Rodriguez story, because of winning the Oscar for best documentary, I only watched Searching for Sugar Man yesterday and was surprised with the link with both Dennis Coffey and Tera Shirma. I don’t remember reading anything about this in Ralph’s book.

I wasn’t aware of the story of Sussex Records and Clarence Avant. In the documentary the link with Motown was made, but this could also have been Motown as in motorcity = Detroit, instead of the label.

And too bad I didn’t watch the documentary earlier, because I visited Detroit last May and could have searched for Rodriguez myself then!