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Film on Miami drug trade is bootleg hit
2006-11-02
When Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman learned their new documentary was a top seller at a Miami flea market, they were surprised -- and confused, because the film wasn't out yet. Between bootleg DVDs and strong word-of-mouth, "Cocaine Cowboys" -- about the real-life Miami drug culture in the '70s and '80s that inspired Brian De Palma's "Scarface" and TV's "Miami Vice" -- became an underground hit in Miami even before its theatrical release last week. But instead of contacting a lawyer, Corben and Spellman decided to embrace the situation and interview the flea market vendors on-camera. The video of the vendors can be found online, along with footage from a barber shop that shows the movie all day for its customers and interviews with hip-hop artists who have seen the film. "Yes, it's our copyrighted material, and people are bootlegging it and selling it and making money, and we're not," said Corben, the director. "So what are you going to do about that? How do you stop it? It's like a phenomenon." While the 28-year-old duo might be losing money upfront, Spellman, the film's producer, is confident the exposure will pay off down the line. "You cannot buy the type of word-of-mouth buzz that starts at the street level," Spellman said. "It's friends telling friends, and those are the people that trust each other the most." Corben and Spellman, both Miami natives, started making short films together while they were high school sophomores. They formed their production company, Rakontur, when they made their first feature-length documentary, "Raw Deal: A Question of Consent." The in-depth look into an alleged gang rape at a University of Florida fraternity house was widely praised when it played at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Spellman said the real key to making "Cocaine Cowboys" was in the people the filmmakers were able to interview. Besides talking to police, lawyers and journalists who lived and worked in Miami during the '70s and '80s, Corben and Spellman also interviewed people involved in the drug trade. "Cocaine Cowboys" includes Jon Roberts, who trafficked more than $2 billion worth of cocaine for the Medellin cartel, and Mickey Munday, who flew more than 10 tons of cocaine from Columbia to the United States. Both men served prison sentences for their part in the drug trade. The filmmakers also spoke with former hit man Jorge "Rivi" Ayala, who remains in prison for murder. Spellman said the hip-hop community has been a major factor in the film's underground popularity. Fans include Trick Daddy, Fat Joe, Pitbull and Pharrell Williams. "I mean the difference between this movie and `Scarface' is that's just for the movies," Trick Daddy said in an interview available on the production company's YouTube channel. "This is a documentary. This is totally different. These are facts. Anything else is fiction." ___ On the Web: http://www.rakontur.com http://www.magpictures.com http://www.cocainecowboys.com http://www.youtube.com/rakontur http://www.myspace.com/cocainecowboys
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