CHEVOLUTION presents a marvelous examination of how cultural iconography can lead a person to be famous yet unknown. In 1958 in Cuba, Fidel Castro’s rebel army—with the help of Comandante Ernesto “Che” Guevara—overthrew Fulgencio Batista’s military dictatorship. In 1960, fashion photographer Alberto Korda snapped two photographs of Che overlooking a memorial service for the victims of suspicious explosions on a freighter at Havana harbor. This photo of a somber, angry and determined Che launched an iconic, global phenomenon.

Directors Luis Lopez and Trisha Ziff conduct a thorough and compelling investigation of the Che mythology and the essential malleability of the Che icon. Why, they ask, did the image become so prevalent after 1967, and how has it meant so many things to so many different people? The filmmakers’ questions point to the complex way in which Korda’s photograph, taken at a moment of mourning, can exist alongside a Che bikini worn by a U.S. teenager. Here we witness the collapsing of high culture and low culture, memory and forgetfulness, and radicalism and commerce. Whether you fall on the left or right end of the political spectrum, you only need to walk into any “hip” overpriced clothing store to see that Che’s image has been made to stand for exactly what he stood against.

Through its interrogation of the mass reproduction of one image, CHEVOLUTION not only provides compelling context for the man, but it asks us to ponder the value of iconography. At what point does an image betray historical accuracy, and should we care? Does the Korda estate control the image, and is control even possible? Driven by inquisitive minds and exquisite filmmaking, CHEVOLUTION asks all the right questions and graciously allows us to answer them ourselves.

–Deborah L. Jaramillo