The documentary Birth of the Living Dead charts the whole process of the film making process from inception through to copyright issues through to modern day impact, whilst never over exaggerating the quality of the film, the abilities of the cast and crew or the production itself. The analysis of the film is broken down into segments and remains easy to follow throughout. The viewer doesn’t have to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the film or film in general, just the ability to follow a well constructed documentary. Romero’s story – college drop out turned success filmmaker – is the type of tale anyone who was interested in filmmaking would find captivating, as are the struggles with funding, making and distributing the film. It’s close to heartbreaking watching Romero discuss the lack of copyright notice that lead to legitimate copying across the planet, robbing him of the money he would have no doubt made. The strangest moment, from a UK point of view, is a junior school teacher showing the film to his class and teaching them the intricacies of zombie films. They’re shocked and surprised… and so was I! It becomes even stranger when Roger Ebert is talking about attending a matinee with children to watch the film, having been deposited there by their parents who went about their daily business of an afternoon, safe in the knowledge that their offspring would be entertained. Naturally, with the topic being a film from the 1960s, many of the stories about the film have been told before, however it’s still refreshing to hear them from the mouths of those involved. It is an engaging documentary with the only downside being a run time of 76 minutes. Every minute is interesting and, hopefully, there’s more to come revolving around Romero’s other films.
