MOVIE · 2012

Searching for Sugar Man

Documentary86 min

In late-1990s Cape Town, record-store owner Stephen “Sugar” Segerman and fellow fan Craig Bartholomew Strydom set out to learn what happened to Rodriguez, a 1970s Detroit singer-songwriter whose albums disappeared in the U.S. but made him an icon in South Africa. As rumors about Rodriguez’s death and identity swirl, the film traces how a musician discovered in a Detroit bar could become a soundtrack to life under apartheid through bootlegs, radio, and word of mouth. Accounts from producers Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore, along with South African fans who built his legend, piece together a music mystery that stretches from Motown-era Detroit to Cape Town.