Archive · 16 Sep 2026
‘Black Zombie’ Explores Hollywood’s Racialized History of Zombies
Black Zombie is a documentary about where movie zombies came from.
Director Maya Annik Bedward says the idea was influenced by Haitian culture and vaudou traditions.
In Haitian folklore, a zombi is not a monster that eats people.
Instead, it is someone who has lost their freedom or soul.
Bedward says Hollywood changed this idea and often connected it to harmful racial stereotypes.
She also talks about why Night of the Living Dead became an important zombie movie.
The documentary includes beautiful black-and-white scenes filmed in the Dominican Republic.
Bedward discussed the film on Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast.
Director Maya Annik Bedward’s documentary Black Zombie examines Hollywood’s use of zombie imagery and its roots in Haitian culture.
Bedward argues that Hollywood films have distorted vaudou traditions and reinforced racial stereotypes.
The documentary explains that Haitian folklore depicts a zombi as a person deprived of free will or a soul, not a flesh-eating creature.
Bedward discusses how Night of the Living Dead became a model for zombie films and how the civil rights movement shaped Black audiences’ responses to it.
The film includes black-and-white sequences shot in the Dominican Republic, and Bedward discusses the creative choices in Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast.
- Who
- Director Maya Annik Bedward, interviewed by John Ridley and Matt Carey.
- What
- The documentary Black Zombie examines Hollywood’s zombie imagery, its Haitian cultural roots, and related racial stereotypes.
- When
- The interview appeared in a new episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast; the article does not provide a specific date.
- Where
- The documentary includes scenes filmed in the Dominican Republic and examines traditions associated with Haiti and Hispaniola.
- Why
- Bedward made the documentary to explore how Hollywood appropriated and distorted Haitian vaudou traditions in zombie films.
- Documentary
- Black Zombie
- Director
- Maya Annik Bedward
- Podcast
- Deadline’s Doc Talk
- Hosts
- John Ridley and Matt Carey
- Haitian folklore
- A zombi is described as a being deprived of its soul or free will, rather than a flesh eater.
- Featured film history
- The documentary discusses White Zombie, released in 1932, and Night of the Living Dead.
- Filming location
- Bedward filmed black-and-white sequences in the Dominican Republic.