How a Haitian Zombie Legend Was Transformed into Hollywood Fear—and What It Says About History

Maya Annik Bedward’s SXSW‑debuting Black Zombie argues that the Haitian zombie, born from enslaved diaspora and vodou tradition, was co‑opted by Hollywood to fuel white fear of Black bodies. The film traces this misappropriation from William Seabrook’s The Magic Island (1929) to the 1932 White Zombie, and centers Haitian voices to expose ongoing erasure and colonial complicity, linking historical distortion to contemporary misinformation and politics. It also documents production across Haiti and the Dominican Republic and frames memory as something that must be reclaimed through truth, culture, and testimony. The documentary released in the US on September 11, with UK/Australia dates to follow.