South Africa / 2006 / 64mins / Documentary / English, Jul'hoan, and Afrikaans

When South African filmmaker Rehad Desai travels to the Kalahari to investigate global interest in ancient Bushmen knowledge, he meets Jan van der Westhuizen, a fascinating Khomani San traditional healer. Jan's struggle to live close to nature is hampered by centuries of colonial exploitation of the San Bushmen and of their land. Unable to survive as they once did hunting and gathering, the Khomani now live in a state of poverty that threatens to see the last of this community forever. One plant could make all the difference. Hoodia, a cactus used by Bushmen for centuries to suppress appetite, has caught the attention of a giant pharmaceutical company as a weight-loss option for westerners. Bushman's Secret features breathtaking footage of the Kalahari landscape, and exposes us to a world where modernity collides with ancient ways, at a time when each has strangely come to rely on the other.

Rehad Desai

Rehad Desai is a former political exile from South Africa, who returned to his home country in 1990. Desai entered the television and film industry as a producer and director in 1996. In 1997, he completed his master’s degree in social history at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; he then completed a postgraduate degree in television and film production through AVEA in 2000. He runs his own film and television company, Uhuru Productions, which produces documentary and dramatic works. He is also the director of the Tri-Continental Film Festival, and is active in the self-organization of filmmakers. His 2014 documentary, Miners Shot Down, about mineworkers in one of South Africa's biggest platinum mines striking for better wages, won awards at several festivals including an International Emmy Award for Best Documentary and a Golden Horn Award for Best Documentary Feature.
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