Raynald Delerme

Raynald Delerme Biography

Born in Port-au-Prince Haiti on July 5th 1957, Raynald Delerme (alias Baba) is the elder son of Anne-Marie and Gerard Delerme, the proud owners of the Haitian School "Freres Polycarpe."

Raynald Delerme spent most of his childhood at Carrefour where his passion for filmmaking began.  He was always present at the 3PM movie showing at Cric Crac Cine, Carrefour.  Often he would go to the back of the movie theater after the show to pick  up old pieces of filmstrips that were  cut out  from the 35 millimeter rolls and trashed in the back.  He would spend hours trying to understand  how  this whole thing  worked  with the subsequent single frames.

His first "movie" project was done at his house with a small screen out of 4 pieces of wood and a screen made out of a white piece of cloth.  In the back, he nailed 3 ribbon rollers, 2 on one side and one on the opposite.  He wrapped 2 pieces of thread going from the  2 rollers on one side to the other by itself.  He cut out a horse figure and attached it to one thread and a cowboy figure to the other.

When night came, he gathered everyone in the family and the neighborhood in the front porch and, with all the lights off, a lit candle behind the screen, he showed his first movie where the cowboy jumped on the back of the horse and rode away.

Wow!  May not mean much to you readers but, to Raynald Delerme, that was a great accomplishment in his desire to become a filmmaker.  That was not going to be such an easy task though.  In Haiti, at that time, a successful parent had to have his child become either a lawyer, a Doctor.

At age 14, he was sent to Boston Massachussetts for his High School studies.  Four years later, he heads to Florida for Pre-Med and Medical school with a first stop at Jacksonville University.  January 1976, he gets accepted at the school of Communications of the University of Miami for filmmaking.  He breaks the news to his parents that they wont have a Doctor or a lawyer but a filmmaker.

Raynald Delerme graduates from UM in 1979 and heads back to Haiti.  With a BFA major in Motion Pictures and a minor in Television Broadcasting, he becomes one of the first employees of the National TV station of Haiti.  He introduces one of the greatest Haitian theater comedians in Haiti, Theodore Beaubrun alias Languichatte Debordus, to the visual airwaves in the most popular TV sitcoms the country has known "Languichaate au 20e Siecle."  The show was a hit from the first airing.
Raynald Delerme's thirst for filmmaking would take him to produce and direct his first film in 1985-1986, "Founérailles" with the same characters from the sitcom with whom he has worked for many year.  The premiere was held at the famous Cine Triomphe at the Champs de Mars, near the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince.  The dream came through, he was a confirmed filmmaker.

In 1990, Mr Raynald Delerme was granted the first private owned on-air television broadcasting license in the history of the country, "PVS Chanel 16."  He favored Haitian cinema and Haitian culture in the programming of that TV station.  He continued making hit movies such as "Les Gens de Bien", "Infidelity", "My Best Friend's wife", "For the love of Suzie" and many more, including his most recent "2 Sisters", distributed by HMMI.

Today, Mr Raynald Delerme is the proud owner of  Palenet Cellular,  a telcom company in South  Florida.  He was recently appointed COO of HMMI Productions.

Back to Raynald Delerme Home Page