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Mary Lucia: a documentary you must see

Yes, it came out in 2012, but Mary Lucia says if you haven't yet seen 'Searching for Sugarman,' you'll want to do so.
Yes, it came out in 2012, but Mary Lucia says if you haven't yet seen 'Searching for Sugarman,' you'll want to do so.Luke Taylor | MPR

by Mary Lucia

September 06, 2017

I have the problem-solver today: if you would like your life to be better, the sun to shine brighter, your food to taste better, you need to immediately watch "Searching for Sugar Man." A lot of people have already seen this documentary and heard about the documentary. Maybe you know who Rodriguez is, but if you don't, this documentary — that came out in 2012 — chronicles this musician, this Mexican-American musician who was living in Detroit, and people called him "the Mexican Dylan," he was so poetic.

Unbeknownst to just about anybody in the rest of the world, Rodriguez was bigger than Elvis at one point in South Africa. Only two albums, but this music just lived on and inspired so many different people. The legend was that Rodriguez had committed suicide; of course, that was not true. He was still alive. He was still working construction in Detroit. He lives a very simple life: he has no TV, no phone, no internet, no car. So the filmmakers went about trying to find him, basically. They did. Rodriguez was reluctant to even participate in the documentary, but they got him to come to South Africa and to play a couple of shows.

Basically, here's a man who's finding out 30 years later his dreams have come true, he just wasn't along for the ride. It's one of the best music documentaries — one of the best documentaries, actually. So see "Searching for Sugarman," if you want to make your life better.

Resources

Searching for Sugar Man - official site

Rodriguez - official site

Rodriguez and Malik Bendjelloul
Rodriguez and Malik Bendjelloul in the MPR studios in July 2012.
MPR Photo/Euan Kerr