About rakontur — nonfiction media studio
Origins
Since first meeting up in middle school, Billy Corben, Alfred Spellman and David Cypkin have forged a unique career by focusing on more pulpy, pop culture-oriented subject matter and then riding the successive waves through which such movies have been delivered to eager audiences.
Press Clippings
Miami Herald · Jan 20, 1994
Miami Herald · Nov 30, 1994
Miami Herald · Jun 18, 1995
Miami Herald · Jul 22, 1996
Miami Herald · Jun 19, 1997
Variety (Miami supplement) · May 19–25, 1997
Miami Herald · Jan 2, 1998
Miami Herald · Oct 15, 1998
Uproxx — October 2020
Billy Corben, along with his producing partner Alfred Spellman, have documented ‘Florida F*ckery’ throughout 14 documentaries… along the way they’ve essentially become the Mark Twains of Insane Floridiana.
Moving Pictures — April 2011
Corben and Spellman’s formula for finding fun in documentary form is matched by a limited number of filmmakers.
Bloomberg Businessweek — August 2008
Rakontur’s ethos: keep hustling, be lean and opportunistic, be constantly interactive and digital, be random, provoke and offend. All along, make sure your audience feels personally invested in your brand. Writ large, this strategy evinces the new marketing order.
Miami New Times — March 2012
Rakontur’s style — deeply journalistic but with a true-crime novel flair. Corben, Spellman and Cypkin never shy away from the racy, ridiculous or salacious, much like the city of Miami itself.
Industry voices
They’ve created a whole new audience: an alternative, youth-leaning, nonfiction-seeking core.
The energy that they have is infectious, and it comes across in their movies. Their style is so frenetic, and their movies have such an interesting pace, very innovative.
Their greatest attribute is a nose for an interesting story. Every film they’ve done has had jaw-dropping aspects to it. And they keep getting better as filmmakers.