Birth of the Living Dead

Rob Kuhns interviews a range of authors, critics, and filmmakers about the impact, legacy, and enduring popularity of Night of the Living Dead. Romero describes the film's background, production, and distribution, including how it accidentally fell into the public domain. Fessenden describes Night of the Living Dead's aspects of postmodernist film, including an early commentary on horror films inside of a horror film – Johnny's taunting of his sister, Barbra, in the opening graveyard scene. Hurd cites the film as an influence on her own work as executive producer of The Walking Dead. Mitchell, among other things, describes how the film presents a strong Black male as the protagonist of a film without resorting to racial commentary. The final scene, in which Duane Jones' character, Ben, is killed by a posse is compared to historical footage of 1960s lynch mobs and police brutality, and scenes of violent zombie attacks are compared to footage from Vietnam broadcast on television.

• George A. Romero, director and co-writer of Night of the Living Dead
• Elvis Mitchell, film critic
• Jason Zinoman, author and critic
• Mark Harris, journalist
• Larry Fessenden, actor, producer, and director
• Gale Anne Hurd, producer
• Bill Hinzman, actor from Night of the Living Dead

Also interviewed are a Bronx schoolteacher who uses it as an aid during his lessons and people who saw it on its first release.

Fessenden, who also executive produced, became a fan of Night of the Living Dead after he saw it on television in the 1970s.^[1] After Fessenden was contacted for an interview, he offered to help out. Several other people, such as John A. Russo, were contacted, but they declined involvement.^[2]

Birth of the Living Dead premiered at the Tallgrass Film Festival on October 19, 2012.^[3] It was released to iTunes on October 15, 2013, and received a limited release on October 18.^[4]