Searching for Sugar Man

Zack from ‘Saved by the Bell’ is dead! Well he isn’t, but at the time, his career probably was.

If little is heard from someone in the public eye for a while, all sorts of fantasies and exaggerated stories will crop up about what may or may not have happened to them. And fans will make those stories that bit more extreme to increase the mystery around their hero. Tupac Amaru Shakur is alive and well and running a small flower shop in Droitwich; Elvis is working in every location possible; and Jesus appears burnt into people’s toast.

‘Searching for Sugar Man’ is Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul’s telling of how two South African fans of little-known American singer Rodriguez sort to find out more about the life (and death). Turns out the mysterious singer/songwriter was huge in English-speaking countries in the Southern Hemisphere where they talk funny. But as he was from an English-speaking country in the Northern Hemisphere where they talk irritatingly and he wasn’t at all popular, little about him and his life was documented.

So, the ‘Dylan-like’ mystery man became the topic of various tales about his suicide at his last performance, the most popular being that he masturbated himself to death on stage while rimming a chipmunk during a rendition of his song ‘Sugar Man’. Of course, none of the theories turn about to be true, and the enigmatic man shrouded in mystery isn’t quite the clandestine legend that they believed.

The documentary doesn’t exactly break any boundaries, split into three parts: introduce this mystery musician to a new audience; have lots of South Africans talk about how he is on a par with Dylan; then the truth. There are holes in the story: trying to ‘follow the money’ only takes them to Sussex Records founder Clarence Avant who, having worked with many other, much larger artists, either can’t or won’t remember much about his record sales. This probably should have been probed further as to where the where all the money from thousands of South African record sales went; or left out entirely as it contributes little into the unearthing of the true facts.

But on the whole this is a nice enough documentary about a man that few knew in his homeland, yet was heralded as a musical genius and a strong influence in speaking out over apartheid in South Africa. The music industry is difficult to predict as to who will sell and where they will sell; but if not given much information, fans will inevitably invent their own stories about the music they listen to. The fantasies will be as outrageous and exaggerated as possible until beyond belief, certainly creating disappointment when discovered to not be true. Though the truth will bring with it some surprises, and perhaps be stranger than fiction.