Kino Lorber will release Black Zombie, Maya Annik Bedward's debut feature documentary, in the United States on September 11, according to Deadline. Blue Finch will handle the film in the UK and Australia.

The film debuted at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, in March as part of the festival's 2026 first-wave announcement, per the SXSW press release. Since then it has screened at Fantasia in Montreal, BlackStar in Philadelphia, and DC/DOX in Washington, D.C., as well as the Margaret Mead Film Festival. Kino Lorber lists the runtime at 90 minutes.

Black Zombie traces the cinematic zombie back to its roots in Haitian spiritual traditions, examining nearly a century of horror cinema through the lens of cultural appropriation, per Variety. Bedward splices clips from films including Night of the Living Dead and The Serpent and the Rainbow with archival footage and contemporary interviews with cultural historians. Deadline describes the film as unearthing the buried origins of the zombie and reclaiming it as a symbol of survival and spiritual resistance.

The project began with a personal spark. Bedward's interest started after a visit to a Canadian exhibition on Vodou, partly curated by Rachel Beauvoir, daughter of a famous Haitian Vodou priest. Much of the research took place in Haiti, where Bedward worked with Yves-Grégory, who appears in the film.

Production started in March 2020 — then paused. The COVID-19 pandemic shut things down first. The assassination of Haiti's president and escalating gang violence made returning to Haiti impossible. The film was ultimately shot in the Dominican Republic with an Afro-Dominican crew. Bedward also assembled an advisory committee that included a Mambo and an Erol — a Mambo being a Vodou priestess — showing them different takes throughout the editing process.

Bedward wrote, directed, and produced the film. Hannah Donegan and Kate Fraser share producing credits. The executive producer roster includes Jennifer Holness, Michael Paszt, Andrew Thomas Hunt, James Fler — and Slash, the Guns N' Roses guitarist, who also appears on screen in the film.

The distribution deal gives Black Zombie a path to theatrical and home-viewing audiences across three major English-language markets. Kino Lorber, a New York-based distributor specialising in independent and international cinema, will handle the U.S. release. Blue Finch, a UK sales and distribution company, takes the UK and Australia.

For a film that spent years navigating a pandemic, political upheaval, and the logistical maze of cross-cultural documentary production, a firm release date is the final step in a long chain. The zombie's journey from Haitian spiritual practice to Hollywood staple is the story Bedward set out to tell. On September 11, American audiences will be able to see it.