In the world of film festival attendance sacrifices are made when looking at the event's schedule. Such a choice was made when it came time to screen Maya Annik Bedward's documentary, Black Zombie, at Fantasia the other week. Our apologies to the director and writer but it was scheduled up against something else that we could not pass up. For every good movie you see there are other equally good ones that you have to pass on.
Thankfully, we will not have to wait too long for another chance to see it, as it begins it's theatrical run in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, September 11th. We do not know what that means for us here in Canada but that is at least is a sign that it will find its way into our cinemas sooner than later. Our friends at Raven Banner were also executive producers on the doc so maybe all we need to do flex our email muscles and resolve our quest.
A gallery of stills and the trailer is below the announcement. Black Zombie opens at the Quad Cinema in New York and the Nuart in Los Angeles on September 11th. It will open nationwide afterwards.
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 Tananarive Due. 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.Director: Maya Annik BedwardWriter: Maya Annik BedwardProducers: Maya Annik Bedward, Hannah Donegan, Kate FraserExecutive Producers: Jennifer Holness, Michael Paszt, Andrew Thomas Hunt, James Fler, and SlashFeaturing: Yves-Grégory Francois, Tananarive Due, Mambo Labelle Déesse, Slash, Tom Savini, and Zandashé BrownRelease details: BLACK ZOMBIE opens September 11 at the Quad Cinema in New York and the Nuart in Los Angeles, and will expand to select theaters nationwide.