Imbizo Ka Mafavuke (Mafavuke’s Tribunal)

The film is an experimental documentary set on the outskirts of a nature reserve in Johannesburg. It depicts the preparations for a people’s tribunal in which traditional healers, activists and lawyers come together to discuss indigenous knowledge and bioprospecting. The pharmaceutical industry has come to regard traditional medicine as a source for identifying new bioactive compounds that can be used in the development of synthetic drugs. The film’s protagonists take on different roles, whilst the ghosts of colonial explorers, botanists and judges observe the debates.