Introduction: Latin Amercan Cinema Today: A Qualified Success Story
Chapter 1: Los diarios de motocicleta as Pan-American Travelogue
Chapter 2: "So What's Mexico Really Like?": Framing the Local, Negotiating the Global in Alfonso Cuarón's Y tu mamá también
Chapter 3: Cidade de Deus: Challenges to Hollywood, Steps to The Constant Gardener
Chapter 4: Playing Hollywood at Its Own Game? Bielinski's Nueve reinas
Chapter 5: Afro-Brazilian Identity, Malandragem and Homosexuality in Madame Satã
Chapter 6: Family Romance and Pathetic Rhetoric in Marcelo Piñeyro's Kamchatka
Chapter 7: Soapsuds and Histrionics: Media, History, and Nation in Bolívar soy yo
Chapter 8: Killing Time in Cuba: Juan Carlos Tabío's Lista de espera
Chapter 9: The Power of Looking: Politics and the Gaze in Salvador Carrasco's La Otra Conquista
Chapter 10: Peruvian Cinema and the Struggle for International Recognition: Case Study on El Destino no tiene favoritos

This engaging book explores some of the most significant films to emerge from Latin America since 2000, an extraordinary period of international recognition for the region's cinema. Each chapter assesses an individual film, with some contributors considering the reasons for the unprecedented commercial and critical successes of movies such as City of God, The Motorcycle Diaries, Y tu mamá también, and Nine Queens, while others examine why equally important films failed to break out on the international circuit.
Written by leading specialists, the chapters not only offer textual analysis, but also trace the films' social context and production conditions, as well as critical national and transnational issues. Their well-rounded analyses provide a rich picture of the state of contemporary filmmaking in a range of Latin American countries. Nuanced and thought-provoking, the readings in this book will provide invaluable interpretations for students and scholars of Latin American film.
Contributions by: Sarah Barrow, Nuala Finnegan, David William Foster, Miraim Haddu, Geoffrey Kantaris, Deborah Shaw, Lisa Shaw, Rob Stone, Else R. P. Vieira, and Claire Williams.