Haitian Zombumentary

Posted by Greg at 05:20, 09 Nov 2010

Writer and film-maker Hamilton Morris has been fascinated with the 'zombie-making' legends of Haiti since middle-school when he first saw Wes Craven's movie The Serpent and Rainbow (based on the book of the same name by anthropologist Wade Davis). Now, as part of his web video series "Hamilton's Pharmacopeia", Morris has made a full-length documentary about the phenomenon and his quest to find out more, titled Nzambi:

You'll find a nice little interview with Morris over at Boing Boing filling in some of the background details on why he made the documentary and how he views the phenomenon of zombie-making.

Previously on TDG:

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Wade Davis & Haitian Voodoo
#1
Rick MG's picture
Member since:
2 May 2004
Last activity:
16 hours 50 min
Posted by Rick MG on 10 Nov 2010 at about 07:45.

Wade Davis wrote a piece for National Geographic back in January, Haiti Earthquake & Voodoo: Myths, Ritual & Robertson -- highly recommended (particularly the comments!). This archive video of Wade discussing Haitian zombies in 1986 is worth watching too.

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@levitatingcat

Waste of money
#2
Live's picture
Member since:
28 November 2004
Last activity:
1 year 38 weeks
Posted by Live on 11 Nov 2010 at about 21:53.

Wow that guy spent a good penny on obtaining some fake zombie powder. Why didn't he just make it himself like he was planning on doing? Maybe I didn't catch the part where he decided to stop gathering the ingredients. Nonetheless though, those Haitians were pretty good sales people, tricking him into buying some stuff. I wonder if customs asked him if he had brought anything back with him. "Oh yes, sir. I have some zombie powder on my person. Don't make use it!" That was some funny shit with the zombie under the white sheet WATCH OUT FOR THE SALT! Another funny part was when the zombie-maker guy is all like "I should eat that mother fucking white boy, YUM! He don't know a damn thing about my magicness!"

I loved this documentary, it is a great break from all the recent docus I've watched, all about war and shit.

Any other recommendations for ones like this?

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Sometimes we get what we need instead of what we want.