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From Che to Film: “Chevolution”
By Trisha Ziff, co-director/co-writer
(from the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival)
With Chevolution, it was a challenge to make a film about "Guerrillero Heroico," the iconic portrait of Che Guevara by photographer Alberto Korda. I have spent the last five years with this photograph - first as a photo exhibition, then as book and now a film. Each medium is different, so you have to really be interested in the material to stay with it through all these incarnations.
What fascinates me is not necessarily Che himself, but the journey of his photograph from a symbol of protest to the ubiquitous image it is today. In Chevolution, we built a film that helped fully realize each version of the image. It's interesting that there are so many movies out there about Che Guevara. But I feel ours is unique, since we have the rights to the image and the support of Korda's family, friends and colleagues. It's like the Buena Vista Photo Club! Having their stories was crucial to the film.
One thing I love about filmmaking is its collaborative nature. Chevolution's co-writer -well-establish European documentarian Sylvia Stevens, with whom I have done one previous project - knows Cuba better than I do, so it was through her connections that the Cuban side of the story comes through. Luis Lopez, the co-director, gave the film a certain edge and style. He was able to move it out of a traditional talking heads doc, imprinting it with his energy. Since I was extremely familiar with the material, I leaned on both Sylvia and Luis for fresh eyes and interpretation.
It's a simple premise to trace and discuss the narrative of a photo like this one, but for some reason, no one had done it before. This doesn't mean that making the film was easy! It was a roller coaster ride to shoot it. We had our moments. |
For example, we suffered headaches getting permission to film Bolivian President Evo Morales, who is an admirer of Che's. We were on a hillside filming, looking down at La Paz and all the lights of the city at night, when suddenly, hands and arms came from below us in the undergrowth and, within seconds, all of our equipment was stolen. When we finally came to interview Morales, he had a tooth infection and one side of his face was so swollen, he would not go on camera. We waited as long as possible for the swelling to go down, but soon we had to move on. It's a documentary. You win some, you lose some.
Photo (top): Composite with elements from film Chevolution. Original photo by Alberto Korda - Guerrillero Herioco 1960. Courtesy Korda Estate, Diana Diaz and Red Envelope Entertainment
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