Action Cinéma Européen (English) 2015 THE FILM Searching for Sugar Man is a 2012 Swedish–British documentary film of a South African cultural phenomenon directed and written by Malik Bendjelloul which details the efforts of two Cape Town fans in the late 1990s, Stephen "Sugar" Segerman and Craig Bartholomew-Strydom, to find out whether the rumoured death of American musician Sixto Rodriguez was true and, if not, to discover what had become of him. Rodriguez's music, which had never achieved success in the United States, had become very popular in South Africa although little was known about him in that country. Synopsis Searching for Sugar Man tells the incredible true story of Rodriguez, the greatest '70s rock icon who never was. Discovered in a Detroit bar in the late '60s by two celebrated producers struck by his soulful melodies and prophetic lyrics, they recorded an album which they believed would secure his reputation as the greatest recording artist of his generation. In fact, the album bombed and the singer disappeared into obscurity amid rumors of a gruesome on-stage suicide. But a bootleg recording found its way into apartheid South Africa and, over the next two decades, he became a phenomenon. The film follows the story of two South African fans who set out to find out what really happened to their hero. Their investigation leads them to a story more extraordinary than any of the existing myths about the artist known as Rodriguez. Initially using Super 8 film to record stylised shots for the film, director Malik Bendjelloul ran out of money for more film to record the final few shots. After three years of cutting room work, the main financial backers of the film threatened to withdraw funding to finish it. He resorted to filming the remaining stylised shots on his smartphone using an iPhone app called 8mm Vintage Camera. The work will eventually be rewarded all over the world. Awards (among others): Best Documentary category at the 85th Academy Awards. Best Documentary category at the 66th British Academy Film Awards 2013. The Directors Guild of America awarded the DGA Award for best documentary 2013. The Writers Guild of America awarded the WGA Award for best documentary. The Producers Guild of America awarded the PGA Award for best documentary. The American Cinema Editors awarded the ACE Eddie Award for best documentary. It won the Guldbagge Award for Best Documentary at the 48th Guldbagge Awards. It won The National Board of Review in New York on 5 December 2012. The International Documentary Association (IDA) awarded it Best Feature and Best Music at the 28th Annual IDA Documentary 2012 It also won Best Documentary during Critics' Choice Awards The film won the Cinema for Peace Most Valuable Documentary of the Year Award. Special Jury Prize and the Audience Award for best international documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. THE DIRECTOR Malik Bendjelloul (14 September 1977 – 13 May 2014) was a Swedish documentary filmmaker, journalist and former child actor. He was born in Ystad in Sweden, the son of Algerian-born physician and Swedish translator and painter. He was an actor in the 1990s. In 2012, he directed the documentary Searching for Sugar Man, which won the 2013 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Malik Bendjelloul committed suicide on 13 May 2014. He mainly directed films about musicians, among which a series about heavy metal and the avant-garde electro band Kraftwerk. He also worked with world-famous artists like Madonna, Elton John or Sting. .