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Film: White Zombie (1932)

Poster for White Zombie (1932)

Director: Victor Halperin

Tuesday April 5, 4pm Herter 227

“White Zombie” is a 1932 pre-code cult horror film starring Bela Lugosi (“Dracula,” 1931) as the antagonist. It is considered the first feature length zombie film. Early cinema depicted vodou as a marker of the “primitive” that served to justify the colonization of the “Other.” The film introduced the image of the “zombie” in U.S. culture, just as the Marines occupied Haiti.

Introduction and discussion moderation by Julio Capo. He is Assistant Professor in the History Department and Commonwealth Honors College at UMass.  In 2012, the Urban History Association awarded him the best dissertation prize.  He is now completing a forthcoming book on Miami’s queer past from 1890 to 1940.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC