Gael Garcia Bernal and the Latin American New Wave: The Story of a Cinematic Movement and Its Leading Man

Gael García Bernal has become the most well-known face of Latin American cinema. He has starred in many of the Latin American movies that have been very successful in the U.S., including Y Tu Mamá También, Amores Perros, and The Motorcycle Diaries. His more recent films include Babel and The Science of Sleep. He is passionately political and is well known for his activities in promoting awareness of big issues such as poverty in Latin America and Fair Trade, and for his protests at the 2005 G8 summit. He has been compared to Johnny Depp and James Dean, and has topped countless "Year's Sexiest Man" lists. Bernal's biography is also the tale of a cinematic movement—how filmmakers from an "unfashionable" and under-funded part of the world reached the very top through dazzling talent and sheer force of will. The book provides the background—cultural, historical, and political—to put the Latin American New Wave and its films in their proper context.