Chevolution: The Story of The Most Replicated Photograph

Chevolution is a documentary film directed by Trisha Ziff and Luis Lopez. It was funded by Red Envelope Entertainment, the distribution arm of Netflix. The film examines how the famous photograph of Che Guevara had became an iconic image of rebellion and political engagement. Not just that, the photograph had also evolved into a pop icon. It beat the famous picture of Colonel Sanders, logo of Kentucky Fried Chicken. You can see now all over the world, Che's photograph is on flags, t-shirts, jackets, emblems, etc wore by young college girls.

Che Guevara was born in Rosario, Argentina in 1928. His real name was Ernesto Guevara. He got a name 'Che' because of an Argentinian like him used to say 'che...' while talking. Some part of his life, while he was young described on film The Motorcycle Diaries.

After studying medicine at the University of Buenos Aires he worked as a doctor. While in Guatemala in 1954, he was a witness to the socialist government of President Jacobo Arbenz overthrown by a US-backed military coup. Disgusted by what he saw, Guevara decided to join the Cuban revolutionary, Fidel Castro, in Mexico.

Chevolution starts there, after Che met Fidel. It explains how Che expressed concern over Fulgencio Batista rule in Cuba, how he saw Castro as the rebels' medic and and how, as if taken from a chapter of 100 Years of Solitude, a string of poorly lost battles somehow culminated in victory that brought the Cuban government as we now know it to power.

At the time the photo was taken, Che was in a deep state of sadness and anger over the La Coubre explosion, a counterrevolutionary terrorist attack that killed at least 75 people and injured some 200 more in March 1960. At the funeral service, the photo journalist from Havana, Alberto Korda snapped his picture. It was not published until 1967 but then an Italian mogul came through and scooped it up to use on posters for profit. Then an Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick made a seemingly subtle rendition in graphic art form that eventually became the sole standard by which all other variations of the image of Che are created.

Korda's family has been fighting for the royalty of the photo while Fidel Castro would not allow a copyright on the photo because he didn’t believe in copyrights though he used Korda as his personal photographer for 10 years.

The film contains interviews with actors Gael Garcia Bernal, Antonio Banderas, as well as political and cultural personalities from Cuba, South America, the United States and Europe. It also contain interviews with some regular people about Che; from a young guitarist in England who thinks Che was the savior against right-wings, to a Cuban-American student who thinks Che was no more than a savage communist militant.

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