This book provides the first comprehensive study of narco cinema, a cross-border exploitation cinema that, for over forty years, has been instrumental in shaping narco-culture in Mexico and the US borderlands. Identifying classics in its mammoth catalogue and analyzing select films at length, Rashotte outlines the genre's history and aesthetic criteria. He approaches its history as an alternative to mainstream representation of the drug war and considers how its vernacular aesthetic speaks to the anxieties and desires of Latina/o audiences by celebrating regional cultures while exploring the dynamics of global transition. Despite recent federal prohibitions, narco cinema endures as a popular folk art because it reflects distinctively the experiences of those uprooted by the forces of globalization and critiques those forces in ways mainstream cinema has failed.
Ryan Rashotte
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"A rambunctious exploration, as over-the-top as its subject matter." - Elijah Wald, author of Narcocorrido: A Journey into the Music of Drugs, Guns, and Guerrillas
"Rashotte is a critic ahead of his time - that Canada should spawn a talent so wickedly in tune with the Mexican dasein is a feat to take note of. What sets Rashotte apart is his grasp of comparative cultural processes - the knotty matrix within which cinema itself evolves. His engaging, inviting, funny, and smart readings of the narco-ninema oeuvre are pleasantly free of overbearing theoretical self-righteousness that dooms other books to remainder hell. This is a comprehensive and readable volume that fuses scholarship with film review with memoir in a new matrix that is a delight to read and a compelling tome to learn from." - William A. Nericcio, Director, Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences, San Diego State University, USA