So, my little pets, you think you know everything about zombies? So did I, but Maya Annik Bedward’s documentary tells the whole story.
Black Zombie
Black Zombie is a Canadian documentary film written and directed by Maya Annick Bedward that takes us on a journey to the roots of zombie mythology and how Hollywood ran with it. Black Zombie includes guest speakers such as Tananarive Due, Slash, Tom Savini, John Cussans, and Mambo Labelee Deesse. Black Zombie is thought-provoking because it reveals the very human side of the zombie anthology, which begins in Haiti.
It all started in Saint-Domingue, which was a French colony whose wealth came from sugar cane plantations. From 1659 to 1801, Haitian people were enslaved by white colonists who not only forced them to work until they dropped dead from exhaustion but also forced them to practice the Catholic religion and deny their own spiritual practices.
Now, you may be asking yourself, “What the hell does this have to do with brain-eating zombies?” But working under savage conditions could make any sane person appear to be a zombie: tired, unfocused, soulless eyes…you get my point.
The myth of the zombie was also tightly woven with the spiritual practice of Voodoo, where a Voodoo priest or priestess, using certain drugs, could make a person quite docile and unable to refuse slavery. The colonizers were not expecting a revolution, but from 1791 to 1840 Haitians fought against enslavement and eventually brought a European empire to its knees.
The French were not happy and demonized the people and their spiritual practice of Voodoo. And because the people of Haiti rose up and shook off the chains…France and other countries made sure that Haiti would be economically sanctioned, thus keeping the Haitians crippled.
Now that I’ve covered Haiti’s history, let’s explore the connection between the religious practice of Voodoo and the myth of Black zombies.
Not Your World War Z Zombie
William Seabrook was an Occultist who had heard a story about people robbing graves and bringing the dead back to life to work as slaves. These zombies were not fast-moving, violent, or interested in eating brains. These zombies were brought back to work as slaves without a will of their own. Seabrook focused on the Voodoo rituals where it was said that the priest or priestess could control the dead with drugs and magic.
Seabrook wrote a book called The Magic Island that brought the myth of zombies to the Western world and Hollywood, where the 1932 film White Zombie, directed by Victor Halperin and starring Bela Lugosi, reinforced superstitious racial stereotypes of a people whose only crime was rising up against their captors. It drove home the message of blackness as evil and Voodoo as worshipping the Devil.
But What About the Brain-Eating Zombies?
Yes, the brains…I don’t know if we will ever figure out why zombies were portrayed as ravenous walking bags of flesh, but the 1968 film, Night of the Living Dead, directed by George Romero, and starring Black actor Duane Jones as the hero, redefined the modern zombie genre. No Voodoo magic was needed in this film, just a hint that it may have been caused by an exploding space probe returning from Venus. The film was controversial because of the extreme gore, faster-moving zombies, and the fact that a Black man was the hero during a time of racial inequality in America.
I remember seeing this movie at a Drive-In theatre. There were five of us, but we only paid for two because we had to hide our friends in the huge trunk of the 1959 DeSoto because we were low on funds. Night of the Living Dead scared the crap out of us. You didn’t hear any of the usual chatter and noise outside the car while this film was showing. People were so afraid that I didn’t see anyone leaving their cars to walk to the Concession Stand. Romero and John Russo created the blueprint of the Hollywood Zombie…and the rest is history.
Conclusion
Black Zombie is not only a historical view of the zombie genre, and the people of Haiti, but it is an anthropological revelation of “Otherness” which the documentary successfully illustrates with movie clips, and interviews.
Today’s zombie films sadly represent an “Otherness” if we consider the scene from World War Z where thousands of zombies are trying to get into the city of Jerusalem…that scene parallels the latest fears that people have over invading Third World immigrants. Otherness is used to hide the fact that wealthy countries caused climate change and started wars that started the migration of immigrants. Zombies have a new face…families crossing borders to save their children.
If you’ve read my weekly reviews over the last 12 years of The Walking Dead, you soon realize that the zombie was never the story. The living were a bigger threat than the dead.
This amazing documentary film will screen at Hot Docs in Toronto on October 23 and 24.
