The quest to find Rodriguez and tell his story led to 'Searching For Sugar Man', which unfolded more like a detective story than a documentary. “This was the biggest, most amazing, true story I had ever heard, an almost archetypal fairy tale,” Bendjelloul told the New York Times in 2012. “It's a perfect story.

Awards filled documentary about Sixto Rodriguez, an American singer-songwriter from Detroit who made two beautiful albums in the early seventies, but none of them sold. Except in isolated South Africa, where, without knowing it himself, he became the musical voice of the anti-apartheid movement among the white population. In their beautifully imagined quest for the mysterious singer, the creators take a few walks with the truth, but it is forgiven: sometimes the beauty of the story goes above all else.

Searching for Sugar Man is a 2012 documentary by Malik Bendjelloul and was awarded an Oscar for Best Documentary that year. The film is about Sixto Rodriguez, an American singer-songwriter from Detroit who made two albums that were barely sold in the early seventies. Except in isolated South Africa, where, without knowing it himself, he became the musical voice of the anti-apartheid movement among the white population. For Rodriquez, the guitar was often the only thing he wore with him in his homeless years. Birney was wandering, in the broad sense of the word. Searching for a place to land, but always wandered on.
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