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Searching for Sugarman

Discussion in 'Entertainment and Technology' started by Ditz, Feb 8, 2013.

  1. Ditz

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    Who have seen the movie/documentary and what did you think of it?

    I just saw a YouTube clip of a 60minutes episode about the film and was amazed to learn that a few scenes in the film was shot with an iPhone 4 as the film maker ran out of money to rent camera equipment, AMAZING stuff!!!
     
  2. Hard Candy

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    What is it about?
     
  3. Ditz

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    It's about this American singer who recoded an album in the early seventies that never made it in the USA... someone brought a bootlegged copy into South Africa and it went viral outselling Elvis and the Beatles. The apartheid government banned the album but it was so popular that it became the rebellion soundtrack of the liberal white youth who where protesting against apartheid. As a kid I remember my parents playing the music, in effect it was the soundtrack of my youth as it was to many other young South Africans.

    Anyway, what makes the story intriguing is that Rodriguez, the artist never knew of his popularity in South Africa... In fact the USA record company never paid him his royalties of the over 500,000 records that he sold in South Africa. He was famous and had no idea that he was, working as a construction worker in Chicago.

    The stories in South Africa at the time was that he had committed suicide on stage by setting himself alight, so everyone over here thought he was dead.

    Flash forward a couple of years into the mid nineties and the dawn of the Internet a South African guy tried to get more details on Rodrigues's death only to find out that he was still alive. So he managed to bring him to South Africa where he found out he was famous playing at sold out concerts etc.

    Flash forward a few years later and a Swedish film maker came across the story and made a documentary about the story which ended up opening the Sundance film festival last year, got nominated for an Academy award and basically pushed Rodriguez into international spotlight where he now, as a 70 year old suddenly found his fame and fortune.

    It's an amazing story!

    Do a YouTube search for: Searching for Sugarman... There's an excellent 60minutes documentary thy you can watch...
     
  4. greatwhale

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    Not just an amazing story, his music is fantastic, original and haunting - listen to "Crucify my Mind" for starters.
     
  5. Ditz

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    [YOUTUBE]r0VI7TLLV3o[/YOUTUBE]

    Don't know if the link above will work but here is the full one:

    http://youtu.be/r0VI7TLLV3o

    ---------- Post added 14th Feb 2013 at 12:24 AM ----------

    Yup, his music is fantastic! :thumbsup: