searching for sugar man reviewSony Pictures 2012
Written and Directed by Malik Bendjelloul
Starring: Rodriguez, Stephen ‘Sugar’ Segerman, Dennis Coffey

On my way to this film, I wandered into a Japanese restaurant across from my destination to sip hot sake and bemoan my solo state. Here it was a Friday snowy night in New York, and I was going to a film by myself. Bummer.
A half hour later, in the steeply raked auditorium of the old fashioned Cinema Village East, I witnessed a heart opening, palate cleansing documentary; Searching for Sugar Man, and everything changed.

Walking out of that film, I felt gloriously alone and inspired by the possibilities in life. A seemingly forgotten musician from the 70’s, Rodriquez, is seen twenty years later raising a family and doing back breaking construction work in Detroit, while becoming an icon in South Africa. While he is breaking down dry wall, un-noticed in his own country, his songs are spreading into the hearts of thousands of people struggling with the hatred and venom of apartheid in South Africa. His music is supporting a movement in a country about to blow apart; he is supporting an old refrigerator on his back.  I find this concept slipping around my unconscious like a riddle. Isn’t bitterness the result of a talented artist that does not get the credit he deserves? Not The Sugar Man.

Rodriquez, in Lucid Body language, is a primary sixth and seventh chakra exploding personality. As a young man he is described as a vagrant, floating around the crevices of Detroit, writing music of what he witnessed. In this state, he is imploded first chakra, meaning rootlessness, and he is exploding 6th chakra, meaning his higher mind is seeing and translating from a wider perspective. Later in life, softly walking through the debris of the Detroit streets, his face is calm like a Buddha. His three daughters speak of him quietly, telling of his modesty and serenity in the face of hardship. Balanced one through 4, imploded 5 (he is no longer making music), yet retaining his exploded 6th and 7th. I really do not think I can pin down a shadow in this man; maybe an imploded third, maybe an exploded third. You will have to see the film and tell me what you can find. But I was flummoxed.

The climax for me, once he was “found” and arrived in Johannesburg, was watching this forgotten poet walk onto a stage surrounded by at least 5000 screaming fans. Damn if he didn’t stay just as calm, just as serene. It didn’t surprise him, and it didn’t knock him down. He just stood there receiving the applause and then started to play. I felt so moved by his equanimity.

Being affected by either criticism or praise from others can go to our heads like a drug. Not so with The Sugar Man.

We go to films to get away from our mundane lives, or do we go to find ourselves tucked in the corner of miraculous moments? I thank the makers of this film whose search was equally tenacious and vital to our understanding of the miracle of poetry; how it spreads without us even noticing. Be true to your word and it will be heard while you are busy taking out the trash and maybe even come back to you with a thanks. Maybe.

This is a  (re)view from the body.
Lucid Body.
March 7th. 2013
Fay Simpson