تفسیر درس

Sugar Man - Commentary Lesson

Hi, this is Kristin Dodds. Welcome back to the commentary for the conversation this month, Sugar Man.

Searching for Sugar Man, I just love this documentary and I highly recommend you watch it if you’re able to get it in your country. You know, movies are a great way to actually learn English. So it’s a great story.

Y’know, I love how Sixto Rodriguez, the main person in the documentary, I love how he’s such a good example of something unexpected happening, something positive unexpected happening.

And that being that thanks to two men from South Africa who really liked his music, and finding him, he was able to learn or to find out that he was very popular, very well-known in South Africa. So it was completely unexpected for him.

Y’know, I thought that I would talk a little bit about the actual movie, the actual film, or documentary, Searching for Sugar Man, because it’s another good example of something unexpected happening, something positive unexpected happening.

Now if you remember in the conversation, Joe and I were telling AJ about the Swedish director, his name, if I— I’m probably not pronouncing it correctly, but Malik Bendjelloul, he was this man from Sweden wanting to make his first film.

So he started traveling around the world looking for a really good story. And he ended up in Cape Town, South Africa, met one of the two men who found Sixto Rodriguez, and started hearing about this whole story and fell in love with the story, thought it was one of the best stories he’d ever heard.

So he set out to start making this film. Okay, that was all talked about in the conversation.

Now, when the film was about 90% finished, Malik Bendjelloul, the person, I’m assuming it was one person, the main sponsor, the main source, the main person or company or group that he was getting funding from or money from for the film, they decided, “y’know, we don’t think it’s a good movie. We think it’s terrible. So we’re not giving you any more money to finish it.”

And it was 90% finished at this point. He’d already been editing it for three years, editing meaning he’d already been cutting parts out and trying to piece it together so that it would flow, it would be very, it would look— it would be polished, finished smooth.

So he’d been working on it for three years when he got this news, or editing— I should say editing for three years. It was 90% finished when he got this news.

So he’d already used all of his savings. So in other words, money that he had been saving, he had already used it up, y’know, for funding for paying for this film. He’d already borrowed money from friends, probably family, too.

So he had to stop working on it and he started working odd jobs, different jobs, just to pay his bills.

He ended up finishing the film using his smart phone. He actually filmed, finished filming with his smart phone, which I think is just unbelievable, going from what I assume he had was a professional camera to finishing with his smart phone.

I don’t know why he no longer had the professional camera, maybe the main source of his group or person who was giving him money had given him the camera and took it back, I don’t know. But anyway, he finished by using a smart phone.

So the thing that was unexpected then was that his film, his movie, Searching for Sugar Man, ended up winning best documentary at the Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars.

And if you don’t know what those are, they happen once a year and it’s, it’s the oldest movie award, awards in the United, here in the United States, oldest movie awards here in the United States. So he won best documentary at the Oscars or the Academy Awards.

And then a second unexpected happening was due to him winning, many Americans then became familiar with this movie and therefore with Sixto Rodriguez, and they started buying his music. He started becoming popular here.

And now, y’know, he’s been touring in South Africa, he’s so popular there, but now he’s actually touring here. As we mentioned in the conversation, Joe, or I think I said it, he played here in San Francisco.

So I just am really fascinated by the whole story with Sixto Rodriguez as well as this Swedish director, Malik Bendjelloul, and just wanted to share this with you in my commentary.

Alright, that concludes the commentary for this month’s lesson or conversation, I should say, Sugar Man.

Have a good month and I’ll see you next month.