Don’t miss the brilliant music documentary „Searching for Sugar Man“ (free streaming until March 23)!

My favorite movie of Filmfest Hamburg 2012 (blog post in German) is being streamed for free by German/French public broadcaster arte until Monday, March 23, 2017 (link to arte’s media library). Watch the trailer of „Searching for Sugar Man“, „the incredible true story of Rodriguez, the greatest ’70s rock icon who never was“ (Rotten Tomatoes):


Wikipedia:

Searching for Sugar Man is a 2012 Swedish–British documentary film of a South African cultural phenomenon directed and written by Malik Bendjelloul which details the efforts of two Cape Town fans in the late 1990s, Stephen „Sugar“ Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom, to find out whether the rumoured death of American musician Sixto Rodriguez was true, and if not, to discover what had become of him. Rodriguez’s music, which had never achieved success in the United States, had become very popular in South Africa although little was known about him in that country.

Searching for Sugar Man (trailer screenshot)

Tip: It is possible to download the movie with the free Windows/Mac/Linux tool MediathekView (info in German).

Praise for „Searching for Sugar Man“ (documented by Rotten Tomatoes)

Michael Phillips/Chicago Tribune:

At 85 minutes, it’s a tight, sharp achievement, yet one of the things I love about it is simple: It moves to a relaxed rhythm, in sync with its slightly otherworldly subject.

John Anderson/Newsday:

You watch „Searching for Sugar Man“ at first fascinated by the mystery – what happened to Rodriguez? Where did he go? Then you become infuriated by its revelations of financial injustice.

Moira MacDonald/Seattle Times:

You watch „Searching for Sugar Man“ at first fascinated by the mystery – what happened to Rodriguez? Where did he go? Then you become infuriated by its revelations of financial injustice.

Mark Jackson/:Epoch Times:

A first-rate doc about the unsung Latino Bob Dylan who brought the spirit of American civil rights and Vietnam War anti-establishment protests to South Africa’s fight against apartheid.

The soundtrack

Peter Jebsen