The cocaine trade of the 70's and 80's had an indelible impact on contemporary Miami. Smugglers and distributors forever changed a once sleepy retirement community into one of the world’s most glamorous hot spots, the epicenter of a $20 billion annual business fed by Colombia’s Medellin cartel. By the early 80s, Miami’s tripled homicide rate had made it the murder capital of the country, for which a Time cover story dubbed the city “Paradise Lost.”
With Cocaine Cowboys, filmmaker Billy Corben paints a dazzling portrait of a cultural explosion that still echoes as Hollywood myth. Composer of the original “Miami Vice” theme, Jan Hammer, provides the score.
2006 Tribeca FIlm Festival (World Premiere)
2007 Deauville Film Festival (Intl Premiere)
“Kinetic and absorbing, the documentary equivalent of ‘Goodfellas’”
“Bullets fly and dead bodies drop like whacked weeds in this startling documentary about the bad old days of the Miami drug trade”
“A rogues gallery of flamboyant gangsters paint an anecdote-rich portrait of the drug trade”
“A hyperventilating account of the blood-drenched Miami drug culture in the 1970’s and 80’s, the movie overflows with cops and coroners, snitches and smugglers, reporters and importers”
“There’s so much compelling material here, all of it salacious and dangerous and so enjoyable that you might just feel a little guilty afteward”
“Billy Corben’s often hilarious, exuberant documentary practically celebrates the bloodbath that was Miami’s cocaine heyday”
“If you needed further proof that the documentaries currently coming out of America are better than the films being produced by Hollywood, look no further”
“Packs the furious momentum and dramatic punch of a riveting feature film”
