CHEVOLUTION

“If you've ever even thought of wearing a Che
t-shirt, this film is a must.”
— Peter Calder, New Zealand Herald

The face of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara is everywhere, on T-shirts in Africa, coffee mugs in Hokkaido and bikinis in Copacabana. How was the hero of Cuba’s Communist Revolution transformed into an object of consumer desire? With mordant wit and a richly rewarding range of reference, this film traces the evolution of a single image from historical moment to photograph to poster to pop icon whose meaning, it seems, is increasingly in the eye of the beholder. The originally overlooked photo was shot by Alberto Korda in 1960 at a memorial service for the victims of a port explosion many believed to have been orchestrated by the US. The documentary traces the paths of both Guevara and Korda (a former fashion photographer) leading up to that moment, and in the years after, teasing out the complex relationships between the image and its widespread use as a symbol of revolutionary ardour by artists, entrepreneurs, politicians, poseurs and even a few ardent revolutionaries.