Maya Annik Bedward’s debut feature, Black Zombie, has been one of the standout titles of the pre-fall festival circuit since its debut at SXSW in March. The title was picked up for the U.S. by Kino Lorber out of Austin and has continued to play at almost every major documentary and genre festival on the circuit, including Fantasia in Montreal, Canada. 

“The screening was sold out. People loved it. It was great,” Bedward says with a smile of the screening in Montreal. 

Written, directed, and produced by Bedward, in her feature debut, Black Zombie explores how the cinematic zombie was born out of Haitian spiritual traditions.

The film is inventive in form, with Bedward splicing together clips from horror classics like Night of the Living Dead and The Serpent and the Rainbow with archival footage and contemporary interviews with cultural historians to trace the zombie figure from the colonial plantations of Haiti to contemporary Hollywood. 

The film is produced by Bedward, Hannah Donegan, and Kate Fraser and executive produced by Jennifer Holness, Michael Paszt, Andrew Thomas Hunt, James Fler, and Guns N’ Roses rocker Slash, who also makes a surprising appearance in the film. 

Kino Lorber will release Black Zombie in the U.S. on September 11, while Blue Finch will handle distribution in the UK and Australia. The film screens this week at the BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia. Below, Bedward speaks with Deadline about how she stumbled upon the fascinating history of the zombie and the 10-year journey it took to bring her vision to life. 

DEADLINE: Maya, how did this project begin? 

MAYA ANNIK BEDWARD: I’ve always been really interested in African traditional spirituality and traditional religions based in the diaspora, like Santeria, Candomblé, Obeah, and Vodou. And then I visited a great exhibition in Canada on Vodou, partly curated by Rachel Beauvoir, who is the daughter of a famous Vodou priest in Haiti. For the exhibition, she wrote this piece on the zombie in the context of the exhibit, and I was like, “What? Wait a minute. I had no idea these are the origins.” That’s where this started, and then I just got obsessed. I started researching more and couldn’t believe how complicated and shocking the story was. I’ve also always been fascinated by the Haitian Revolution and believed there hasn’t been enough discussion about it, so this felt like a really great entry point to talk about that history. 

DEADLINE: Did you shoot in Haiti?

BEDWARD: No, I wish I did. I did a lot of my research in Haiti and worked with Yves-Grégory, who’s in the film, from the beginning. My intention was always to go back, but unfortunately, we started production in March 2020, right when the pandemic hit, so we had to pause. And then the president of Haiti was assassinated, and things got really bad in Haiti with the gang violence that ensued. 

So we had to make a call, and we decided to shoot in the Dominican Republic, which was really difficult for me because of the history and relationship between the DR and Haiti. But fortunately, we worked with this really incredible Afro-Dominican team who really understood the project, the motives behind it, and saw it as a form of almost reparations or reconciliation for how Haitians are currently treated in the DR. So for them, this was a really important project, and they did such a great job of making sure the Haitian contributors and crew were safe.

DEADLINE: Have you been able to screen the film for your contributors in Haiti? 

BEDWARD: I actually had an advisory committee, and Mambo and Erol were on it. I would show them different takes of the film, ask them questions, and get their opinions. That was hugely important for me to reflect on our intentions, what we were achieving, and making sure Vodou was properly represented.

DEADLINE: You mention 2020, so you’ve been working on this for around 6 years?

BEDWARD: No, so it’s actually been almost 10 years. We got funding in 2020 to go into full production, but I’ve been researching and speaking to people and traveling. I went to Haiti. I spent quite a bit of time in New Orleans as well, working on the project. So it really has been a labor of love over 10 years. 

DEADLINE: Like all good zombie films, I could instantly see a part 2 when I saw your documentary. Or a series on the topic because it’s so rich. Do you have plans to expand beyond this film?   

BEDWARD: We’re planning an impact campaign with the film, working with members of the Vodou community in the Caribbean and African diaspora to have conversations and educate people about how these spiritual traditions have been demonized. I’m excited for that to happen. I also hope more films about Haitian Vodou are supported, and Haitian filmmakers are funded to make work on the subject. I’ve got some other projects that are very much connected to the themes in the film. I’m always interested in telling stories about Black historical traditions that have been hidden, misrepresented, or demonized. But I don’t think I’ll be making another zombie film. 

DEADLINE: There are obviously a lot of clips from Hollywood films in the documentary. And I wondered, was it hard to get those? You’re not directly criticizing them, but they’re part of your wider thesis. 

BEDWARD: Yeah, we had to make the argument that they were part of our thesis. There’s a bunch of stuff that’s in the public domain, like older Hollywood clips, but the newer stuff, we definitely had to prove the argument that there was some type of critical commentary. And sometimes, the lawyers would say no, so I had to re-edit scenes. I was re-editing scenes right up to SXSW to make sure they could be cleared. 

DEADLINE: Was George Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead free to use?

BEDWARD: There’s a whole story that it’s in the public domain, but that’s not really quite true, so I was told to err on the side of caution. So we went through the proper process to make sure we could clear those clips.

DEADLINE: The film has screened at SXSW, Frightfest, and DC/DOX. How are you feeling about showing the film at BlackStar?

BEDWARD: I actually went to BlackStar years ago to pitch this film and got so much support from them. I had the best time at that festival. It’s such a special event, so I’m excited to bring the film back there to screen.