"Searching for Sugar Man"

I can honestly say that this documentary is one of the most fascinating stories I've ever watched, even heard. "Searching for Sugar Man" is a documentary about Sixto Rodriguez who was an American musician in the 1970's who's music took off greatly in South Africa but never in his native America. Rumours for years had gone around about him killing himself and this story follows the journey of two of his biggest fans to find out the truth about his death, or if there even was a death. To them, it was like he just disappeared off the face of the earth and they wanted to know more about this mysterious musician. 

I'll not spoil the film for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, but it's a must see in my eyes. Not only story wise of course, but shot wise too. The beginning of the films starts out with a high wide shot of the city, these shots are my absolutely favourite camera shots; the buildings with all the lights lit up as well as the car lights; at night especially it's a beautiful view. When we move to Cape Town, it's very carefully played with the camera driving along with the car and it slowly pulls into a wide shot to see the car driving away in the distance but you can see how tall the cliffs and hills truly are. It's an amazing shot and I can only imagine how much time and patience went into getting that exact shot. 

Towards the beginning of the film, there was an animated drawing of "The Sewer" and over a few seconds, this turned into a photograph which then changed to real camera shots. It was a stunning panning shot, almost two minutes worth, and again, I can only imagine how long that took to set up and direct.

Other shots throughout the documentary included black and white photographs made into slow motion camera movement montages that all blended together so well that you wouldn't even realize you were watching a group of photographs; you felt as though you were watching a mini story unfold. When interviews were taking place, the background to these were very interesting; for example the interviews with Clarence takes place in a  recording studio and a number of gold discs are behind him on the wall.

Sixto's music is played throughout the film and they added an extra touch to make it easier to find his music online. Every time a different song played, the title of the track and the year it was made, was put on the left hand side on the screen.

If you're looking for a documentary with catchy music throughout, a story that will keep you compelled from start to finish as well as visually beautiful cinematography, then this is one of those films that you need to see.