Billy Corben, guest speaker at Rotary luncheon

Florida native Billy Corben is guest speaker at the February 25 Rotary Club luncheon. Billy made his feature documentary directorial debut with "Raw Deal: A Question of Consent," examining the alleged rape of an exotic dancer at a fraternity house at the University of Florida. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001, making him one of the youngest directors in Sundance history. Following that success, Billy and producing partners Alfred Spellman and David Cypkin founded Rakontur, a Miami Beach-based content creation company, and took on another Florida true crime story "Cocaine Cowboys," a hyperventilating account of the blood-drenched Miami drug culture in the 1970s and '80s, which I am sure you have seen played on cable so many times.

The film tells the story of how the drug trade built Miami through firsthand accounts of some of the most successful smugglers of the era and the deadliest hitman of the cocaine wars. After a limited theatrical release in 2006, Cocaine Cowboys became the highest-rated documentary ever on the Showtime cable network. The sequel, "Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustling with the Godmother," was released in 2008.

Billy has also directed two of the top five highest-rated ESPN 30 for 30 series, "Broke," examining the explosion of big money in sports and the epidemic of professional athletes who have gone broke.and the Peabody Award-winning "The U," a feature documentary about the championship history of the University of Miami football program which became the highest rated documentary in the network's 30 year history.  

The luncheon is at the Coconut Grove Sailing Club (2990 South Bayshore Drive), cost is $20.

Please RSVP to coconutgroverotaryclub@gmail.com