Opening in select theaters on September 11th is the new documentary ‘Black Zombie‘ from director Maya Annik Bedward , which profiles the roots of zombie mythology in Haitian Vodou and explores its evolution from a metaphor for slavery into a trope of fiction that has distorted Black history.
“A culture, a legacy, and a people that refuse to die.”
Release Mar 13, 2026Runtime 1h 30m
The documentary features new interviews with ‘Dawn of the Dead‘ actor Tom Savini and Slash from Guns N’ Roses, as well as scenes from films like ‘White Zombie‘, ‘Night of the Living Dead‘, and ‘World War Z‘.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with documentary filmmaker Maya Annik Bedward about her work on ‘Black Zombie’, coming up with the idea for the film, her research, conducting the interviews, clearing the footage, the importance of ‘Night of the Living Dead’, the rise of popularity in zombie culture, and making her feature film directorial debut.
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Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about coming up with the idea for the documentary and beginning your research to make the movie?
Maya Annik Bedward: It definitely started from learning about the connection of the zombie to Haitian Vodou. I’ve always been really interested in African traditional religions. Um, Being part of the diaspora, I always want to learn more about my history and the cultural traditions that existed that came across the Atlantic that are often said to be erased but actually exist still in a lot of these traditions. So I came at it from that perspective and when I found out the zombie was connected to Haitian Vodou, I was shocked. I didn’t know that. I was completely floored. I needed to learn why I didn’t know that and the more I learned about that story and how the zombie was taken, brought to Hollywood, I just thought, wow, there’s so much. It’s so fascinating how this happened. There’s so many important twists and turns and, I think the story really needs to be told. It really spoke to my passion and the work I do telling black stories. So, that’s where it came from.
MF: Were you a fan of zombie movies and TV shows before this project and what kind of research did you have to do into zombie entertainment?
MAB: No, I wasn’t really into zombie films at all when I first started this project. In fact, I always found it harder to connect with zombies as opposed to other horror genres or horror sub-genres. Then, when I started to make this, I realized I had to watch every single zombie film ever made. So I started to do that and gain a better understanding of the genre, and of horror in general. I started to meet a lot of people in horror and who were so supportive of this project and I gained a new appreciation for horror and it’s potential to tell really compelling political stories. So, I became more into horror as I started making the film.
MF: Can you talk about the interviews you conducted and did you conduct them yourself? Also, how did you choose what voices you needed to tell this story?
MAB: This was a very independent production, so I did a lot of everything. Including a lot of editing, actually. I worked with great people as well, but we were a very small crew. So, I conducted all those interviews. I found all those people. I decided who we were going to interview. For me, it was really important to find people who could be charismatic on screen, especially when it came to the more academic experts. I didn’t want it to feel like a dry account. I wanted them to have interesting perspectives and takes and storytelling capabilities. So who I chose to be in the film was often about that in addition to all of their expertise, like how they could really deliver that on screen. So, I worked extensively with the people you see in the film, on what we would talk about and what were the intentions behind these interview. A lot of those people I met really early on in my research and have been a part of the filmmaking process all the way through. So, it was definitely a challenge and sometimes I wasn’t sure because it’s my first feature film. But I definitely learned a lot as I was doing it and one of the things I wondered was, do I have all the people I need to tell this story? But I think it really did come together in the end.
MF: What was it like sitting down with Slash? Were you surprised by how much of his persona is inspired by Haitian Vodou culture?
MAB: That’s why I wanted him in the film. Rock and roll has sits roots in Vodou and African spiritual traditions. That’s where it all comes from. So I wanted to nod to that and also show how so much of Vodou is in our popular culture. We just don’t even realize and it needs to be acknowledged. Slash was great. He’s such a chill guy. He was really into the project. We caught him when he was on tour and they were having a show that night in Montreal. We joined him for sound check and he was super laid back and loves his mom. He was very happy to talk about her in the film.
MF: Can you talk about the footage you used in the film from other movies and TV shows and how you cleared the rights?
MAB: I mean, there’s so many zombie films out there. I knew that there were key films we were going to touch on in the film to really tell the story, like ‘White Zombie’, ‘Night of the Living Dead’ and ‘Serpent and the Rainbow‘. So, when I was interviewing people about those films, often we would watch certain scenes and discuss them in depth and describe what we’re looking at and then include their analysis because I knew the more details I could get from them, the more I could use this footage in fair use. So I was pretty deliberate in making sure that they could bring in that context and analysis because we didn’t have a huge budget, so we couldn’t have purchased all those things. I needed to make sure that when they were discussing these films I could use the footage we needed to cover. That was a huge part of the interview process and preparing for that. That’s what allowed me to put so much of those clips in and then also making sure for the more contemporary Hollywood clips, we’re always creating an argument that some of this footage supports. So it was a dance with the lawyers and a lot of late night edits, up to the final hour right before locking to get the film ready for SXSW. We were still adjusting, and going through the lawyer’s notes. By then I was the one doing a lot of that stuff. I was like, how can I make this scene work? It was a dance, but I think it turned out.
MF: Can you talk about the importance of director George A. Romero‘s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ and the way it elevated the zombie movie and even addressed the civil rights movement?
MAB: So, ‘Night of the Living Dead’ is, in the canon of zombie films, quite important because it’s that crucial moment where the zombie becomes a flesh eating monster. Before that, that idea of flesh eating was never really associated with zombies. So, he actually created that monster. In fact, it wasn’t even a zombie. It was a ghoul. He never called it a zombie, but that name got attached to it and then was embraced by him. That’s how we got the contemporary flesh eating zombie we have today. But before that film, the zombie we know today just didn’t exist. So, that’s a seminal moment and changed the course of how zombies are portrayed in cinema. A lot earlier than that they often were people that lost their agency because some nefarious sorcerer had turned them into a zombie and that’s where you get a lot of these racist tropes about Vodou in Haiti in those early zombie films. But ‘Night of the Living Dead’ really was not touching on those kind of stories. It was its own thing. It had created this ghoul. But what’s so interesting about ‘Night of the Living Dead’ is that the lead character is black and it very much ties into what was happening at the time when the film came out with civil rights being this really important moment for black liberation. When you watch my film, you can see that’s a central theme in the whole film. ‘Night of the Living Dead’ has so many ties to the story in so many different ways you wouldn’t necessarily expect.
MF: Can you talk about the rise in popularity of zombie movies and TV shows over the last decade and why people continue to gravitate to this form of entertainment?
MAB: That’s a great question. I asked it to a lot of the people I interviewed. “Why are zombies so popular?” There wasn’t one cohesive answer. I thought it was really interesting some of the answers were about it being a way to show violence enacted on bodies without feeling guilty because if there are zombies, you can just kill them, shoot them in the head with a gun and see all these blood and guts because they’re not, quote unquote, really human. I think that’s a very interesting and important observation. I also think because I’m a millennial, in the 2000s, there were so many discussions about the end of the world. I think that continues today with the pandemic and I think we’re a little bit obsessed with the idea of an apocalypse. Zombies really feed into that setup. But they keep coming back. Everyone wants zombies, and I thought that was so interesting even seeing things like ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies‘.
MF: Finally, this film is your directorial debut, but you have directed several short films and television projects. How do you think that your past experience prepared you to make this movie, and what did you learn from the process that you will take with you to your next project?
MAB: When I first started this film, I just made shorts. So, I feel it took me over 10 years to make this film. Throughout those 10 years, I got an opportunity to work on a lot of different productions and got to work with bigger crews, higher production values, and more resources. When I finally got into full production, I luckily had developed my skill set as a filmmaker, and having the ability to do that and elevate the film was really amazing. So I’m very grateful that I had this additional time to make the film. My next project, I think I would trust my gut more. The film is really very close to what I wanted it to be in the beginning. I just didn’t really know how to get there and often I would get off track and it’s trial and error too, especially in the edit room. I think I would have trusted my instincts a little bit more in certain things and pushed forward with those. I feel more confident in being able to do that for my next project.
What is ‘Black Zombie’ about?
A journey through cinema and history reveals how zombies evolved from Haitian spiritual traditions into Hollywood horror, exploring their deeper cultural significance as powerful symbols of resilience.
Who is interviewed in ‘Black Zombie’?
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