Renaldo Schwarp delves into toxic campus culture in upcoming documentary feature
MEDIA personality and film-maker Renaldo Schwarp is back with a hard-hitting documentary that tackles issues around campus culture.
As more than 5 500 first-year students descended on the Stellenbosch University (SU) campus at the start of February, Schwarp started production on his much-anticipated documentary feature in this historic student town.
The doccie, Kampus (Afrikaans for “campus”), aims to expose the reality of South African university culture.
Schwarp, 30, is originally from Pretoria but moved to the Western Cape in 2010 to study at SU, where he remained until 2018.
He works between Johannesburg and Cape Town, and hosts kyknet’s popular show Kassie-kuiers.
The film delves into the disturbing reality of racism, binge-drinking, gender-based violence, and institutional prejudice at campuses across South Africa, and is interwoven with moving first-hand testimonies from victims and their families with insights from experts, university staff and journalists.
He said: “The film is a call to action for change, and a powerful reminder of the urgent need for transformation in our universities. Many of the broader societal problems in South Africa stem from the issues that most universities, and not just Stellenbosch, are facing.
“My hope is that Kampus can serve as a resource for educators and advocates working to reform campus culture, especially those interested in bystander-based violence prevention and larger issues of race, gender, identity, alienation, and belonging.”
Schwarp said the need to tell this story comes off the back of stats indicating that universities are caught in the crossfire of toxic campus culture.
“I wanted to pursue this project as it tells the story of a cornerstone of South African society: tertiary institutions. Over the past two decades, universities have been caught in the crossfire of toxic campus culture and traditions, with the 2022 news cycle specifically being dominated by campus related stories.
“While these topics and themes have been covered in the media over the years, the film dissects these individual touch points by not looking at them in isolation, but as a collective and a symptom of a bigger issue, and one that is systematically and historically ingrained in the DNA of tertiary institutions across South Africa.
“I see myself as a multi-platform storyteller with a strong interest in representative and inclusive journalism. I am compelled to take on projects that speak to or against the current social climate and zeitgeist.”
Schwarp is an award-winning multimedia journalist and broadcaster whose 2019 debut film Skeef (currently streaming on Showmax) opened to rave reviews locally and internationally.
Following the documentary’s debut, Schwarp wrote a top-selling eponymous book that further spotlighted LGBTQIA+ issues in South Africa, much like his directorial debut, Kampus exposes the underbelly of an important microcosm of South African society.