Birth of the Living Dead

This isn't your typical horror documentary. It has George A. Romero as its subject, with his enthusiastic participation, and it examines the significance of his landmark zombie film Night of the Living Dead. The movie focuses on the tumultuous period in which the film was made, its almost accidental emergence as a civil rights film, the actual business people in Pittsburgh who put the movie together, and more. Romero makes so many new revelations about the movie, you'll want to go back and watch Dead again for the hundredth time. Many of the actors in the movie, including the doomed brother at the film's beginning, were major parts of the film crew. I also never knew the bug-eating zombie at film's end was also the same actress who played the mother who gets killed by her zombie daughter. After the credits, there's a wonderful little 2007 interview with Bill Hinzman, who died in 2012. Hinzman played the legendary graveyard zombie at the beginning of the movie. He reveals that his zombie was initially just part of the ensemble, and his appearance near the end of the film (that wonderful walking-around-in-a-circle moment) was initially his only involvement. Romero liked Hinzman's zombie act in the mass attack scene so much that he asked him to play the very first zombie in the film. That's the sort of info that makes this doc so cool. (This is available for rent on iTunes and Amazon.com, and not playing in local theaters).