The Year of the Che

A few years back I was actually dabbling in writing, or adapting, a Che screenplay for a small production company in LA. Back then, though, it was exactly the wrong political climate to make such a film. Now, it’s all the rage. With Soderbergh set to release his Che duo pics at Cannes, all eyes are suddenly on the sexy Commie revolutionary. Cinematical has a review of a new Che doc called Chevolution, which screened at the Tribeca Film Fest:

What struck me about the movie was its completeness; it not only took a careful look at the lives of Guevara and Korda, but it also examined the genesis of the famous photograph, taken at a memorial for the victims of the 1960 terrorist attack on the ship Le Cubre. The photo, one of two frames of Che amongst rolls taken by many photographers at the event, wasn’t even published in the local papers the next day, but showed up internationally seven years later. Che’s revolutionary message, which dovetailed nicely with the student protests that had started around the world by that time, combined with a lack of copyright laws in Cuba, allowed the image to spread like wildfire around the globe.