BLACK ZOMBIE
Genre
Documentary
Language
VOSTF
Duration
90
Rating
About
Exclusively at Cinéma du Musée.
Presented as a double feature with Night of the Living Dead on October 24:
- BLACK ZOMBIE — 5:00 PM
- NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD — 8:00 PM
Filmmaker Maya Annik Bedward will be present for a Q&A following the screening of Black Zombie and will introduce Night of the Living Dead.
Synopsis
BLACK ZOMBIE digs beneath the blood-soaked spectacle of modern horror to uncover the zombie’s buried and unsettling origins. Long before it became associated with flesh-eating ghouls, the zombie was a living metaphor for slavery: not a monster, but the ultimate victim of colonial power. A symbol of stolen agency was recast as an object of fear, while Black spiritual traditions were distorted, sensationalized, and erased. Director Maya Annik Bedward traces the evolution of the zombie from colonial Haiti to contemporary Hollywood, reconsidering iconic films like WHITE ZOMBIE, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW alongside archival footage, vérité scenes, and interviews with cultural historians, artists, and genre legends including Yves-Grégory Francois, Mambo Labelle Déesse, Slash, Tom Savini, and Zandashé Brown.
Part cultural reckoning, part horror remix, BLACK ZOMBIE exposes how a figure born from enslavement, spiritual belief, and resistance was transformed into one of pop culture’s most profitable monsters.
“Fascinatingly unpacks the origins of one of the most popular horror genres of all time.” – RogerEbert.com
Directed by
Maya Annik Bedward
Actors
Yves-Grégory Francois, Anderson Mojica, Erol Josué, Mambo Labelle Déese Botanica, Slash
Country
Canada
Version
Original w/French subtitles
Release year
2026