Think of your favorite band or singer when you were 15. Think of how you would play a certain track in your bedroom, lying on the floor. When you're a teenager, life seems big because your life is the universe--at that time in your life, you were the sun. And the moon. And the earth. And the sky. All in one.
Now, let's just assume you grew up as you aged. Imagine that your idol--your beautiful musician that rocked your world and enhanced it as a teenager--has stepped back into your life. When you were younger, you only knew what you needed to know about this musician. The importance you gave him made him important. That was your value system. It worked while you were a teenager. But, now, you are grown, and your idol is back. But, this time, you get to learn the truth--the truth about him (instead of your angst-ridden teenage soul's imagining of the musician).
Searching for Sugar Man is a documentary about a Detroit musician named Rodriguez. In the 1970s, for millions of South Africans during Apartheid, Rodriguez served as their collective teenage idol. The movie goes on a sort of journey, from millions of fans adoring Rodriguez at a time when they needed a voice for the Anti-Apartheid Movement, to confronting the singer (or, the singer's story) on his own terms. The fans whom Rodriguez inspired are ready to understand Rodriguez not only as a voice of a movement, but as his own person.
