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Shocker: Director of the Academy Award-Winning Documentary ‘Searching for Sugar Man’ Found Dead. He Was 36

May 14, 2014  •  Post A Comment

"Malik Bendjelloul, 36, the producer, writer, director and editor behind the Oscar-winning music documentary 'Searching for Sugar Man,' has died, [Swedish] police said," reports The Hollywood Reporter.

The story continues, "Police spokeswoman Pia Glenvik told the Associated Press that the Swedish filmmaker died in Stockholm late Tuesday, but wouldn't specify the cause of death. No foul play was suspected."

The article adds, "A big hit at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival that was quickly snapped up for mid-six figures by Sony Pictures Classics, 'Searching for Sugar Man' detailed the efforts in the late 1990s of two fans of American singer-songwriter Sixto Rodriguez in Cape Town, South Africa, as they tried to get to the bottom of the musician's rumored death.

"Rodriguez's soulful music from the early 1970s had gone unnoticed in the U.S., but bootlegged copies of his two albums had become enormously popular in South Africa."

After hearing about Rodriguez's story while he was travelling in South Africa, Bendjelloul told THR in a 2013 interview, " 'I was like, "This is a really good story, actually. It's not just a random story." I retold the story to friends, and they were like, "This is the best story we've ever heard. It's like a fairy tale."' The project — first envisioned as a seven-minute piece for Swedish TV — took four years, beginning in 2008, to become a feature."

malik bendjelloul.png

Malik Bendjelloul

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