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.