first off i did enjoy this film, but what about all the info on how rodriguez was pretty popular in australia in the 70s and played several gigs here in the late 70s and early 80s thus making him not as mysterious as this film would like to point out
share Aw, bummer. He toured Australia in '79 and '81? That kind of puts a damper on the feel-good-ness of the story. I assumed that he had completely faded into obscurity as a musician by about 1980 and was working laying asphalt or whatever. I guess it's possible that in South Africa they were unaware of him playing Australia, even tho the two countries are relatively near each other. But it's still a very cool story, with the bit of folklore in SA that he had committed suicide on stage many years ago by setting himself afire, and then he is found and comes there to perform.
Garcon! A bucket for Monsieur!
I also agree that it's a great story, and I say the filmmakers did purposely leave out any mention of Australia.
Not one of his family, his co-worker, or the increasingly hostile record-label guy mentioned this. They were taking artistic license, because bring it up would have lessened the impact of the overall story.
But I also understand who South Africans in general would not have been aware of what was going on in the outside world regard music, although I would certainly expect people who consider themselves avid music fans and "music detectives" to be aware. As for me, I didn't realize as I was watching it that this is being told as *solely* from the South African perspective.
Still, it is a good story.
It would have diminished the story if I had known about his success in Australia. But facts is facts.
I appreciate learning that because it explains one mystery- Why was Rodriguez so instantly comfortable playing to a large crowd? That was a nearly magical part of the movie which now makes more sense.
Still a cool story though.
I am a white, afrikaans South African and was born in '71. I got to know about his music around 1980 in the small town where I grew up. I had a bad copy but all the kids had a copy and the origin was unknown.
As far as the Australian twist goes, I never knew about that growing up. Due to the isolated society we grew up in, when we heard "Australia" we just thought "Rugby, Kangaroos and Kevin Bloody Wilson". That was my "knowledge base" on anything Australian! I don't think the Australian angle would have been appropriate in the context of the South African association with Rodriguez. It was a brief and seemingly shortlived uprising in his career anyway. It seems he just returned back to his familiar life when that did not pan out. The fact is he remained a humble, hard working man throughout his life, whatever the circumstances were.
With this documentary a lot of South Africans had relived floods of memories just based on hearing his voice, myself included. I am sure after all the hype has died down no South African would worry what Rodriguez has planned for his future as they are pretty sure he would make the best choice for himself. We have solved and seen the mystery and we are now happy!
If he lives in the same house or buys a mansion, hey, its all good and he deserves to be happy because he made us happy. With this a lot of people relived a part of their childhood (myself included) that is difficult to understand if you did not grow up in SA in the 70's and 80's. It was indeed different (but not bad!) compared to today.
The Aussies? Well, they're just Aussies, mate! (And we beat them at Rugby!!)
I agree, after watching this brilliant film we started rooting around the internet and found out about Australia but in fairness to the filmmaker this story is supposed to be about the South African fans finding him and I think the whole Australia business is therefore irrelevant to this particular story. It in no way diminished the film for me.
shareI think the facts are pretty straight forward here. The film makers most likely purposefully ignored Australia but I don't blame them. Adding it would only detract from the story's initial impact, but at the same time, it wouldn't really change the overall story, since he clearly didn't get rich or gain any momentum from the Australia tour.
I have relatives who were in the music industry in that era, and there really was a 1% type situation going on - in that the top 1% of recording artists/performers were super rich and the rest were barely getting by to very poor. Non-stadium/arena concerts were not as profitable back then either due to the cost of travel, size of equipment, difficulty producing merchandise, lower ticket prices, etc. and because of all that I honestly don't think that the Australia thing changed the story all that much, except in that leaving it out made the big reveal better.
I think the facts are pretty straight forward here. The film makers most likely purposefully ignored Australia but I don't blame them. Adding it would only detract from the story's initial impact, but at the same time, it wouldn't really change the overall story, since he clearly didn't get rich or gain any momentum from the Australia tour.
Yeah, I don't think it's a big deal either way. So the guy also achieved some success in another country (not nearly as much as in South Africa.)
By late 80's and into the 90's it appears his music career was over anyway. The main surprise of Rodriguez's story is that he was this huge star in South Africa and apparently an influential artist during the anti-apartheid movement, and he never knew this. It's almost impossible to imagine in this day and age, even in countries with heavy government censorship and control (as was in South Africa back then.)
The documentary was well made in a pretty commercial style, and obviously edited in a manner to maximize suspense and dramatic effect- I never got the impression watching it that it was a Werner Herzog documentary. As long as the major story lines up with reality then it's fine with me.
Actually, because of its more accessible and commercial nature, I wonder if any of the other nominated documentaries might have been more worthy of the award (not saying this one wasn't, just wondering...)
I went to his concert at the Perth Concert Hall (Western Australia) and also has his albums...his album was one that just about everyone here had in their record collections. He got huge airplay on the radio too......just love his music
I came on here to post the same thing. I remember as a kid in australia, I was 10 years old in 1972 and that album cover was everywhere, every home that I went to had this album.
shareSouth Africans being unaware of Rodriguez's success in Australia under apartheid is very believable. The white only vote to abolish apartheid was held in 1992 and by 1994 Nelson Mandela was President - 4 years before Rodriguez's tour.
By 1998 there had been cricket and rugby tours by South African teams. South Africa was at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics. By 1998 South Africa was definitely back in touch with the world.
By 1998 the internet was rapidly becoming popular and mainstream. Remember how Sugar got in contact with Eva Rodriguez - by message board.
Of course by the time apartheid was finished Rodriguez had ceased being a mainstream musician in Australia and it was unlikely any promoter or record company from Australia would have been in contact with Rodriguez so the mystery angle remained.
But by 1998 the guys looking for Rodriguez should have been aware of Rodriguez's success and tours in Australia even if that didn't help them find him in 1998.