Footage of those first concerts, and the fan frenzy they inspired, can be seen in Searching for Sugar Man, an 80-minute documentary that is the culmination of Bendjelloul’s efforts to tell the story of Rodriguez. The film was shown in January at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the documentary jury prize and audience award. It’s been a labour of love for Bendjelloul, who continued making it alone for five years. “It was hard to keep going at times,” he said. “People promised money, then backed out.” Bendjelloul cold-called British film producer Simon Chinn, who had success with the documentary films Man on Wire and Project Nim. “He left a message saying he had a better story for a film than Man on Wire,” Chinn says now. “There was something about Malik. His enthusiasm was infectious.” Which is why Searching for Sugar Man has UK producers and is partly financed by British film fund The Documentary Company.