Rodriguez
60 Minutes’ Segment: Searching for Sugar Man was a spectacular story of a singer/songwriter few of us have ever heard of!
The Sony Pictures Classics documentary Searching For Sugar Man got a spectacular shot in the arm with a full 60 Minutes segment on the film’s subject, the rediscovered singer Rodriguez. If you didn’t get to watch the segment last night, it’s worth a look because Rodriguez’s story has to be seen to be believed:
If you missed the segment, then you must watch it here! There is already Oscar buzz for the indie filmmaker who happened upon Rodriguez in a serendipitous way while traveling to South Africa. Rodriguez is a Mexican-American singer from Chicago who almost lived the rest of his life in obscurity. Not any more.
Sixto Diaz Rodriguez (also known as Rodriguez was born in 1942 in Detroit, Michigan and is a Mexican-American folk musician. Rodriguez’s parents were middle-class immigrants from Mexico, who left in the 1920s. In most of his songs he takes a political stance on the cruelties facing the inner city poor.
The 2012, the Sundance Film Festival hosted the premiere of the documentary film Searching for Sugar Man, from Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul, detailing the efforts of two South African fans to see if his rumored death was true—and if not, to discover what had become of him. The Simon Chinn- and John Battsek-produced documentary went on to win the World Cinema Special Jury Prize and the Audience Award, World Cinema Documentary.
The Searching for Sugar Man soundtrack features a compilation of Rodriguez tracks from his “Cold Fact” and “Coming From Reality” albums… released this past July 2012.
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