Chevolution
Directors: Luis Lopez & Trisha Ziff
Year: 2008
Country: Mexico
Duration: 86mins
Print source: Madman
Web: www.madman.com.au
The revolution may not have been televised, but Che Guevara, one of its key advocates, was transformed into a pop icon that appeared on everything from t-shirts to posters to cigarette lighters to bikinis and a thousand other everyday objects. Chevolution tells the story of Che Guevara, the Argentinean doctor who chose to take up the gun and join Castro in the fight against imperialism in Cuba. But it isn’t simply a bio-pic, instead it examines how Guevara became an image, immortalized by fashion photographer turned revolutionary photojournalist Alberto Korda, whose story is also woven throughout this rich film.
Chevolution tells how one photo created an icon to the counter culture of the ‘60s, to generations of subsequent protestors and to marketing gurus. Tracing the history of Alberto Korda‘s photo, the film explores the two men’s lives, and how an image both caught and created the zeitgeist .
Mixing engaging interviews with family, friends, artists, actors, photographers, social activists and opponents of the revolution, alongside archival footage Chevolution offers an intriguing insight not just into revolution but into the making and marketing of an icon.