Kino Lorber Acquires US Rights to Maya Annik Bedward’s BLACK ZOMBIE Documentary
“From Haiti to Hollywood, Bedward’s doc reveals the buried origins of the zombie style “. Kino Lorber has introduced the acquisition of US distribution rights to Maya Annik Bedward’s documentary Black Zombie, with plans for a theatrical launch this fall:
Kino Lorber has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Maya Annik Bedward’s documentary Black Zombie, which made its World Premiere on the 2026 SXSW Movie Pageant. The doc traces the origin and evolution of zombies from Haitian religious traditions to fixtures of Hollywood horror, analyzing the cinematic and historic context and reclaiming their deeper cultural significance as highly effective symbols of survival and resistance. Black Zombie will likely be launched theatrically by Kino Lorber this fall adopted by a digital, academic, and residential video launch.
Black Zombie digs beneath the blood-soaked spectacle of recent horror to uncover the zombie’s buried and unsettling origins. Lengthy earlier than it grew to become related to flesh-eating ghouls, the zombie was a residing metaphor for slavery: not a monster, however the final sufferer of colonial energy. An emblem of stolen company was recast as an object of worry, whereas Black religious traditions had been distorted, sensationalized, and erased. Director Maya Annik Bedward traces the evolution of the zombie from colonial Haiti to up to date Hollywood, reconsidering iconic movies like White Zombie, Night time of the Dwelling Useless, and The Serpent and the Rainbow alongside archival footage, vérité scenes, and interviews with cultural historians, artists, and style legends together with Yves-Grégory Francois, Mambo Labelle Déesse, Slash, Tom Savini, and Zandashé Brown. Half cultural reckoning, half horror remix, Black Zombie exposes how a determine born from enslavement, religious perception, and resistance was reworked into one of popular culture’s most worthwhile monsters.
The deal for Black Zombie was negotiated by Kino Lorber VP of Acquisitions Karoliina Dwyer and Invoice Straus of Bridge Impartial.
“I’m thrilled to accomplice with Kino Lorber on the discharge of Black Zombie,” stated director Maya Annik Bedward. “The movie explores the ability of photographs to form our understanding of historical past, tradition, and race, making it particularly significant to work with a distributor so deeply engaged with cinema’s previous and current. Their ardour for movies that problem, illuminate, and increase our understanding of the world makes them a great accomplice for bringing this story to audiences throughout the U.S.”
“The zombie is among the most iconic photographs in cinema, and also you’ll by no means take a look at them the identical after watching Black Zombie,” stated Dwyer. “Maya Annik Bedward has crafted an interesting, deeply researched documentary that reveals the lengthy buried Haitian origins of the style, interrogating colonial, political, and Hollywood historical past to highly effective and illuminating impact. We’re so proud to convey this documentary to U.S. audiences this fall.”
Black Zombie is written and directed by Maya Annik Bedward. The movie is produced by Bedward, Hannah Donegan, and Kate Fraser and govt produced by Jennifer Holness, Michael Paszt, Andrew Thomas Hunt, James Fler, and Slash.
About Maya Annik Bedward
Maya is an Afro-Caribbean Canadian filmmaker whose work blends historical past, resistance, and popular culture by means of daring, genre-bending storytelling. Her work has screened at festivals together with SXSW, TIFF, Scorching Docs, BlackStar, and the New Orleans Movie Pageant. Her credit embrace The Haircut (2018), Why We Combat (2021), LIDO TV (2022), BLK: An Origin Story (2022), and Farm Crime (2023). She acquired Canadian Display Award nominations for her directing work on LIDO TV and Farm Crime, and gained a Canadian Display Award for producing Patty vs. Patty. Maya is a founding member of the Black Display Workplace, the place she champions tales that heart Black creativity and energy.
About Kino Lorber
With a library of over 4,000 titles, Kino Lorber has been a frontrunner in unbiased artwork home distribution for over 45 years, releasing 30 movies per 12 months theatrically and garnering 16 Academy Award® nominations because the 12 months 2000, together with one Oscar® win in 2026 for Greatest Documentary Function for Mr. No person Towards Putin. Kino Lorber is a part of Kino Lorber Media Group, which additionally consists of main worldwide collection streamer MHz Selection and Kino Movie Assortment, a subscription service for movie lovers showcasing new releases direct from theaters plus curated worldwide, indie, and documentary movies and newly restored classics from the Kino Lorber library. Moreover, the corporate brings tons of of titles yearly to the house leisure and academic markets by means of digital and bodily media releases. The Kino Lorber Media Group, encompassing Kino Lorber, Kino Movie Assortment and MHz Selection, acquires and presents extra worldwide content material than some other unbiased media firm within the U.S.