Rodriguez is a descendant of Mexican immigrants. In 1970, he recorded an album called "cold fact" in Detroit and sold 35 copies. The second album "coming from reality" the following year, According to Avant, the owner of his company in Sussex, only six were sold, and the buyer included himself and his family. In the United States in the 1970s, almost no one knew about the singer, but his "Cold Reality" spread to South Africa thousands of miles away in a paradoxical way, and became a household name in the local music. "Sugar man" (sugar man), with clear singing and talented metaphorical lyrics (such as sugar-white powder), just to give the South African people who were blocked in the apartheid era a cathartic channel. Rodriguez sang in the album. Rebellion and sexual liberation, singing and guitars have traveled through the age of protests. To this day, they are still the "national golden song" of the people of South Africa. The limelight has even overshadowed the "Elvis Presley" and the Rolling Stones and has become a testimony of social changes in South Africa.
In 2006, Malik Bendjeruu, a young artist from Sweden who was wandering in South Africa, first heard about this unheard of singer but possessed the talent of a prophet. He was very interested in it, and what made the young director excited is that Although in the past 30 years, Rodriguez’s records have been widely circulated in South Africa, even when "Cold Reality" was officially banned, the songs are still popular, but no one knows Rodriguez in the real world. What kind of character he is, all kinds of rumors about him, including "public self-immolation", "shooting to death", etc., the South African public's understanding of him is limited to the mysterious man sitting in the crystal ball on the record jacket. Until the 1990s, Cape Town record store owner Saruman and reporter Craig teamed up to reveal Rodriguez’s true face, and he invited Rodriguez, who had been unknown to him, back to South Africa for a concert.
Malik’s initial thoughts were not complicated. He only hoped to complete a short music film by interviewing Rodriguez, as he did before shooting Elton John, Bjork, etc., but Rodriguez seemed quite interested in accepting interviews. Because of sensitivity, I refused three times in a row. When facing the camera formally, I showed a strong discomfort and involuntarily made evasive actions. This style of "hidden merits and fame" is really inconsistent with the image of a folk superstar. . Malik then launched a larger filming plan, flew to South Africa, visited Saruman and Craig, and then followed their trajectory to pursue Rodriguez’s former partners, including producers, bosses, etc., to present it in full. Rodriguez surfaced the whole process after decades.
This kind of filming process is undoubtedly quite difficult, especially the director Malik is almost entirely supported by enthusiasm. In the three years from 2008 to 2011, he not only did not earn any income from this, but even needed to invest a lot of money on his own, and almost went bankrupt. It was exhausted, and the final shooting was completed with the iphone. Had it not been for Simon Chien, who had been the producer of "The Tightrope Walker", to help, the film would have been dead.
The completed "Looking for the Sugar Man" is like a prose poem that spans the United States and South Africa, with a large number of interviews with the parties and two revealers, a display of the cityscapes of Detroit and Cape Town, plus a few songs by Rodriguez The golden tunes are interspersed, and the process of watching the film is like alternating a silent symphony of destiny, with mixed flavors. In the past, the record company owner was furious and hesitated when facing the camera, unable to explain clearly where the royalties went to the record sales of 500,000 in South Africa; Rodriguez’s construction workers were shocked at the musical genius around him; and Rodri Gezi and his family faced the camera, sighing and laughing about life. The film also inserted the live footage of Rodriguez’s return to South Africa for a concert in 1998. In the face of a crowd of people, the little-known construction worker turned into a folk superstar who had been late for 27 years, "The world is like a chess." These four words are the best footnotes at that scene.
The brilliance proved by the ultimate success of "Looking for the Sugar Man" (both box office and word-of-mouth win) should have continued to shine. However, more unexpected than the film and its shooting process, it has not had time to show its ambitions. Malik committed suicide in Stockholm on May 13, 2014 due to depression. The various "suicide" rumors circulating in South Africa that year about Rodriguez were completely groundless. This time, Malik's death was true. . The 36-year-old director was chatting and laughing with Rodriguez in the "Looking for the Sugar Man" DVD. Before the interview, he made no secret of his playful actions, and occasionally showed the big boy's smile, showing An extremely optimistic image. His perseverance resulted in "Looking for the Sugar Man", which echoed Rodriguez, who persisted in obscurity, and became a "legendary" interaction on the movie screen. Malik left several short music documentaries for the Swedish public broadcaster SVT during his life. "Looking for the Sugar Man" became his first and last feature documentary, even though some truths were concealed (Rodriguez actually It’s not that Hengchi is unknown. It was discovered by Australian organizations to go to concerts and participated in music festivals.) But this beautiful "fairy tale" story made most Americans (and even the world) know it for the first time. Rodriguez, the completion of this "fairy tale", just like Rodriguez's low-key life for 40 years, is an unprecedented utopian spiritual pursuit. It has been completed once and will not be repeated in the future.
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