Images of drug trafficking. 20 audiovisual adaptations of the figure of Pablo Escobar in the 21st century. Uses of archival material in narco-fiction and documentary productions

Abstract

This article studies all the audiovisual adaptations on the figure of the drug trafficker Pablo Escobar Gaviria during the XXI century, (2000-2018). Productions that are framed in the context of the so-called narco series, based on real stories. These series are supported by the archive material for the construction of stories based on reality. The study takes as its main axis the use of archive material in these productions. 20 adaptations made up of series, documentaries, and fiction units are analyzed. The 20 productions studied are characterized in a systematic way, presenting the differences according to the countries of production and identifying in a qualitative and quantitative way the various uses of archive material, photographs, videos, audios from news, private archives, and family albums that supports the reality component to tell stories based on real events.