Instructions

You are asked to watch the documentary Searching for Sugar Man (d. Malik Bendjelloul, 2012). You may find it on Netflix (with subscription, if not you may sign up for a 30-days trial), Vudu, Amazon, Youtube Movies, iTunes. For the sake of this write-up, I’d like you to engage with two OR more of the questions below (300 words):

• What were the conditions (social, political & technological) that made possible the journey of Sixto Rodriguez’s album to South Africa?
• What were some of the songs that got banned during the apartheid? What kind of musical events were banned?
• What message did South Africans find powerful in Sixto Rodriguez repertoire? What lyrical content did they relate to–at the individual and collective levels?
• Do you think that the music genre (folk rock) mediated the communication and reception of the Rodriguez’s songs?
• Do you find any parallels between the themes/observations of the American inner city articulated by Rodriguez and the events/issues unfolding in South Africa at the time?

Finally, please feel free to share anything else that you find interesting or moving about the film and the issues it covers. And above all, enjoy it!

Solution

Searching for Sugar Man

The journey of Sixto Rodriguez’s album to South Africa was made possible by the apartheid resistance from the masses. From the documentary, Rodriguez was not a highly successful artist of his time. However, a few years into his music career, his albums found their way to Cape Town, South Africa. Here, pirated duplicates could pass among members of the public and over time, his songs turned into chorales used by the anti-apartheid campaigners. Young Afrikaners were resisting the apartheid system and ended up finding his songs for this political function. In this way,…………………………………To access the rest of the solution for $5, please click on the purchase button.