Searching for Sugar Man
I just saw this tonight, and thought I'd mention it, especially for the music fans among us. I first heard it described a couple of months ago by Mike Reiner on the Ticket, and got interested enough to track it down. It is a documentary and tells the stotry of Sixto Rodriguez, a singer/songwriter who was supposed to be the next big thing in the early 70's. He was compared by critics to Bob Dylan, and he cut two albums, which totally flopped in the U.S. He then vanished from the music scene entirely.
But a copy of his first album made it to South Africa, where it became wildly popular, and was credited with being part inspiration and part anthem of the anti-apartheid movement. As one of the musicians interviewed says, it seemed like every child in South Africa grew up knowing the lyrics to every song on the album. The story was that he had died early, and one of the legends was that he committed suicide onstage. A couple of fans got obsessed with what happened to him and how he died, and they began an obsessive and mainly fruitless search for info about him.
Then they found a lead, and found his daughter, and at this point the story gets really amazing. I won't spoil things by revealing any more. But it is a case of life sometimes being more incredible than fiction. The last 30 minutes or so were as moving as any fictional film I've seen in awhile. His music plays a prominent role in the film, along with cinematography that you don't see too often in a documentary. It's not just a bunch of talking heads.
The movie is up for an Academy Award for best documentary. It's available by On Demand through Time Warner and is also available at Redbox locations. Really, really worth it.
