Searching for Sugar Man (2012)

The story told in this documentary is strange and sad and beautiful, not to mention that it will reinforce everything that you believe about a record label in the 1960's and 1970's.  It is a story that is so hard to believe that if it wasn't a documentary you would say it was too far fetched.

Sixto Rodriguez put out an album 'Cold Facts' in 1970, and another one the next year.  They were very good folk albums that remind me of Bob Dylan in that era, only he had a better voice.  They sold very little in the U.S. and his career quickly fizzled.  His record label cut him while he was recording songs for his third album, and he went back to where he came from and started working construction.

Unbeknownst to him, an early fan of his took 'Cold Facts' to South Africa with her in the early 1970's and it was a huge hit.  The government of the time was deeply entrenched in aparteid and very repressive of any kind of dissent.  There was censorship galore, and the music of Rodriguez spoke to the youth of South Africa.  So the story goes, his music became the style and tone of the protest music of a nation.  He was literally bigger than Elvis and the Rolling Stones.  What happened to all those royalties?  We will never know, but his record label probably holds the key to that story.  In any case, the second half of the movie is about how fans of his in South Africa contacted him in the late 1990's and as a 50 year oldman he became a performing rock star, playing to sold out stadiums full of people.  It is very much a feel good story, and his music is wonderful.  Do not miss this movie, which deserved the Oscar for Best Documentary that it won this past spring.