The 16th annual Documentary Film Series at Oklahoma City University will conclude at 2 p.m. April 27 with Malik Bendjelloul’s “Searching for Sugar Man.” The screening is free to the public and will be held in the Kerr McGee Auditorium in Meinders School of Business. It is sponsored by the Thatcher Hoffman Smith Endowment Fund.
“Searching for Sugar Man” is the true story of Sixto 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. But the album bombed and the singer disappeared into obscurity.
Unknown to Rodriguez, 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 discover 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.
“Searching for Sugar Man” was the Oscar winner for Best Documentary, as well as equivalent awards around the world. According to NPR, “‘ Searching for Sugar Man’ catches all the fleeting moments of triumph and the years of endurance, the accumulation of family and the unquenched dreams—and doesn’t presume to sew it all up for us.”
The documentary series is titled “The Song Has Its Way.” It is based on a poem by Tracy K. Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who gave a presentation at OCU earlier this month.
For more information about the series, visit the website www.okcu.edu/film-lit; contact Harbour Winn, director of OCU’s Center for Interpersonal Studies through Film and Literature, at (405) 208-5472 or email him at hwinn@okcu.edu.
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