"Sugar Man" director dead at 36

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Film director, Malik Bendjelloul, who self-financed and produced, “Searching for Sugar Man”, was found dead yesterday (Tuesday) in Stockholm. Bendjelloul, who was only 36-years-old – is renowned for his film about Sixto Rodriguez which won him the Academy Award in 2013 for best film documentary, “Searching for Sugar Man” has also won numerous other awards.

“Seaching for Sugar Man” is the only film Bendjelloul ever directed and produced. The film takes its title from “Sugar Man,” a song about a drug dealer that appeared on Rodriguez’s 1970 album, “Cold Fact.”

Bendjelloul’s film tells the story of singer/songwriter Sixto Rodriguez, who is also an excellent guitarist. In the early 1970s Rodriguez recorded two blues-tinged folk-rock albums under the single name Rodriguez. Neither of Rodriguez’s albums became big hits in the United States. However, unbeknownst to Rodriguez – his albums became best sellers in South Africa.

Thinking he was a failure, Rodriguez became a manual laborer to support his three daughters. It wasn’t until Rodriguez was discovered by Bendjelloul during the making of his film, that the world became aware that he was still alive.

Due to being lost to obscurity as a manual laborer – there were many stories floating in the news and in music circles about how Rodriguez had died. To this day it remains a mystery as to who cashed in on the best-selling Rodriguez albums that were sold in South Africa.

Bendjelloul was basically a self-taught filmmaker when he started the self-financed project that he also edited in his modest Stockholm apartment. “This was the greatest, the most amazing, true story I’d ever heard, an almost archetypal fairy tale,” he said in a 2012 interview with The Times. “It’s a perfect story. It has the human element, the music aspect, a resurrection and a detective story.”

The cause of death for Bendjelloul has yet to be determined – however, no foul play is suspected.