Interview: Director Maya Annik Bedward on her new doc Black Zombie

Writer/director Maya Annik Bedward's Black Zombie explores the cultural roots of the zombie, specifically its Haitian history and the way it's been used in early horror films and literature to perpetuate negative racial stereotypes. In a little more than 90 minutes, the film covers a lot of ground, including the anti-colonial roots of voodoo but also its negative representation in Hollywood. The documentary includes interviews with scholars and some well-known names within the horror genre, including special effects artist Tom Savini and horror novelist and scholar Tananarive Due, as well as voodoo practitioners. The documentary was also produced by Slash, who’s another on-screen contributor.

Just prior to the film's premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival, we spoke with Bedward about the film. This interview was edited slightly for clarity.

The Horror Lounge: What initially interested you in the cultural history and legacy of the zombie?

Maya Annik Bedward: My background is that I’m Afro-Caribbean. My father was born in Jamaica. I’ve always been interested in stories that look at our history, traditions, and cultures not through a Western lens. I’m very interested in the connections to West Africa and the traditions that were taken from West Africa through the transatlantic slave trade. Often, we’re told that a lot of that history isn’t captured and has been lost. That’s just not true. You can find traces of it in our music, food, and most powerfully, in our spiritual traditions.

When I found out the zombie was a Haitian voodoo metaphor for slavery, that just blew my mind. I was shocked I didn’t know that. I had to learn more. The more I researched, the more I knew I had to tell the story. That’s the way I came at the story.

I actually wasn’t into horror at all. I’m a filmmaker and love film, but that was the genre that never really appealed to me. As I started doing research for the film, I actually fell in love with horror. I’ve been working on this film for about ten years. Through that journey, I became really interested in horror as a tool to tell really meaningful stories.

The Horror Lounge: Your film contains interviews with directors, horror scholars, and also actual voodoo practitioners. Can you talk about the importance of having that diverse array of voices in your documentary?

Maya Annik Bedward: I think that’s what makes this story so interesting is that it touches so many parts of the world. We’re in Hollywood. We’re in France. We’re in Haiti. The zombie is a global phenomenon. I think it was the nature of the story, but for me, it was important to center Haitian voices and the voices of Haitian voodoo practitioners. I wanted to start from that place.

Although a lot of people don’t know the origin story of the zombie, what has remained is the total denigration of Haitian voodoo. It’s synonymous with black magic and sorcery. That all comes from these early zombie films. I always wanted to center those voices and show voodoo in its true nature and how beautiful and healing it is.

It was a big story, so I had to go into these key places and get the right people to talk about those different points in the history of the zombie.

Image Courtesy of Falco Inc.

The Horror Lounge: Slash signed on as a producer. Talk about that relationship and what it was like working with him.

Maya Annik Bedward: I had shot quite a bit of the film before I met with Slash. I was connected to him through some other executive producers. Slash loves horror, but he’s such an iconic figure. A lot of that is his look. He’s an amazing guitar player, one of the best in the world, but he has this iconic look. It’s very much connected to the guardians of the crossroads, a huge figure in voodoo and a lot of the African spiritual traditions.

I thought he was such a great example of how we kind of know but don’t really know what voodoo is. We have these things in pop culture and nods to it. His mother is African American, and she has connection to the faith and these traditions. It was a full circle in which he had a real respect for the faith. When we approached him, he was totally game. He loved the idea and was so sweet to interview.

The Horror Lounge: Near the end of the film, a Haitian voodoo practitioner expresses reservations about the documentary because he says in the past, interviews have been used to again foster negative stereotypes about the Haitian people and voodoo more generally. Can you talk about that interaction with him?

Maya Annik Bedward: I was very concerned whether I was representing voodoo properly. I’ve been very interested in African-derived religions. I spent a lot of time in Brazil learning, but I’m not a voodoo practitioner at all. There’s been so much harm done by people coming in, taking these stories, and telling them. I wanted to be really sure I wasn’t re-perpetuating that.

When I asked him a question, I wanted a really honest answer. He had his reservations, and I thought that was important. I am a creator behind the scenes, making decisions. There’s never going to be anything that’s fully objective. It’s about your intention and what you’re trying to do. I wondered if I was making the right decision. I thought it was important to pull back the curtain and show that it’s a film, process, and story inspired by some of the stories I read about the Haitian voodoo zombie.

The Horror Lounge: There’s a lot of great commentary on Night of the Living Dead and Ben’s fate, as well as the political and social subtext. From Night of the Living Dead to now, do you think zombie media still holds some of that political and social subtext?

Maya Annik Bedward: For sure. Zombie films right now are set in these post-apocalyptic worlds. It’s the end of humanity. It’s this us vs. them and othering that happens. Sometimes, people don’t put a political lens on it, but some do with the othering that happens. You have to be conscious of what you’re doing with the zombie film, especially with otherness.

I also think there are a lot of films that harken back to the original Haitian zombie. It’s this idea of an enslaved person. I think of Jordan Peele’s Get Out. That, to me, is a zombie film. Another film I love is Atlantics by Mati Diop. That’s a great zombie film that looks at migration and the dehumanization that happens to migrants. I do think there are zombie films that are incredibly relevant and tell powerful stories.

The Horror Lounge: Why do you think the zombie remains so persistent in popular culture?

Maya Annik Bedward:  I think people like zombies because in the more modern zombie film, it creates this post-apocalyptic world. It’s often a contagion. It’s reminiscent of what we went through with the pandemic. It addresses a lot of parallels and fears in our modern life.

A lot of people say they’re nothing like the Haitian zombie, but if you think about the transatlantic slave trade and people who were brutalized and forced to work in the fields, for them, that was an apocalypse. I think that’s why that story is still connected to the zombie today. People just don’t look at it through that lens of the diaspora and what happened to our ancestors.

That’s my guess, and it’s only a theory. [Laughs].

The Horror Lounge: Thank you so much for taking the time to chat, Maya!

Black Zombie had its premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival.

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