Black Zombie

7:30pm | SIFF Film Center 

Presented by Grand Illusion Cinema. From the flickering screens of Hollywood horror to the haunted cane fields of colonial Haiti, Black Zombie unearths the buried origins of the zombie, reclaiming it as a symbol of survival and spiritual resistance.

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. 

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Director Maya Annik Bedward traces the evolution of the zombie, reconsidering iconic films like I Walked with a Zombie, Night of the Living Dead, White Zombie, 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.

Critic’s Pick! “The gangs of the undead are all here to reflect an often ignored and complicated genealogy: from the entranced white woman in Victor Halperin’s White Zombie to the multiracial mob of flesh-eaters in George A. Romero’s 1968 film Night of the Living Dead to the frenzied hordes in World War Z and beyond.” —Lisa Kennedy, The New York Times

“An intellectual pleasure. Maya Annik Bedward artfully threads the needle between Caribbean spiritual practices and what we’ve seen on screen. A smart, nuanced love letter to Haiti, and a delight for cinephiles.” —Caroline Colvin, Dread Central

“Black Zombie demands you reconsider both the horrors humans are capable of and the untold beauty of the living and the dead. It’s the rare documentary you want everyone you know to watch.” —Jessi Cape, Austin Chronicle