8 hours ago
EXCLUSIVE: Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. distribution authorities to Maya Annik Bedward’s documentary Black Zombie, which debuted astatine nan 2026 SXSW Film Festival.
The doc traces nan root and improvement of zombies from Haitian belief traditions to fixtures of Hollywood horror, examining nan cinematic and humanities discourse and reclaiming their deeper taste value arsenic powerful symbols of endurance and resistance.
Black Zombie will beryllium released theatrically by Kino Lorber this fall, followed by a digital, educational, and location video release.
The charismatic synopsis reads: Black Zombie digs beneath nan blood-soaked spectacle of modern scary to uncover nan zombie’s buried and unsettling origins. Long earlier it became associated pinch flesh-eating ghouls, nan zombie was a surviving metaphor for slavery: not a monster, but nan eventual unfortunate of assemblage power.
A awesome of stolen agency was recast arsenic an entity of fear, while Black belief traditions were distorted, sensationalized, and erased. Director Maya Annik Bedward traces nan improvement of nan zombie from assemblage Haiti to modern Hollywood, reconsidering iconic films for illustration White Zombie, Night of nan Living Dead, and The Serpent and nan Rainbow alongside archival footage, vérité scenes, and interviews pinch taste historians, artists, and genre legends including Yves-Grégory Francois, Mambo Labelle Déesse, Slash, Tom Savini, and Zandashé Brown. Part taste reckoning, portion scary remix, Black Zombie exposes really a fig calved from enslavement, belief belief, and guidance was transformed into 1 of popular culture’s astir profitable monsters.
The woody for Black Zombie was negotiated by Kino Lorber VP of Acquisitions Karoliina Dwyer and Bill Straus of Bridge Independent.
Black Zombie is written and directed by Maya Annik Bedward. The movie is produced by Bedward, Hannah Donegan, and Kate Fraser and executive produced by Jennifer Holness, Michael Paszt, Andrew Thomas Hunt, James Fler, and Slash.
“I’m thrilled to partner pinch Kino Lorber connected nan merchandise of Black Zombie,” Maya Annik Bedward said successful a statement. “The movie explores nan powerfulness of images to style our knowing of history, culture, and race, making it particularly meaningful to activity pinch a supplier truthful profoundly engaged pinch cinema’s past and present. Their passion for films that challenge, illuminate, and grow our knowing of nan world makes them an perfect partner for bringing this communicative to audiences crossed nan U.S.”
Dwyer added: “The zombie is 1 of nan astir iconic images successful cinema, and you’ll ne'er look astatine them nan aforesaid aft watching Black Zombie. Maya Annik Bedward has crafted a fascinating, profoundly researched documentary that unearths nan long-buried Haitian origins of nan genre, interrogating colonial, political, and Hollywood history to powerful and illuminating effect. We’re truthful proud to bring this documentary to U.S. audiences this fall.”
