Mario L. Delatour was born in Caracas Venezuela on September 26, 1955 to Haitian parents and spent his formative years in New York. Delatour studied film at Columbia School of Motion Pictures and Television in Los Angeles, California from 1976 to 1978. He then went on to UCLA where he received a B.A in Latin American studies and a Minor in Third World Cinema. Upon graduation, he went to work for Warner Bros at the Burbank film studios in North Hollywood where he worked on a variety of television shows notably Fantasy Island, Dukes of Hazards & Flamingo Road.

By 1986 he was back in his homeland Haiti working as a field producer for ABC News. Over the years as Haiti experienced great social turmoil, Delatour collaborated with a number of high profile journalists notably Diane Sawyer of ABC News, Dan Rather and Mike Wallace of CBS News with whom he did three"Sixty Minutes"pieces.

Though his talents drifted more into television, he never abandoned his initial love for feature films. In 1987 Mr. Delatour was hired as a liaison person on the Hollywood film "Serpent and the Rainbow" by director Wes Craven. In 1994, he was hired as a Production Manager on the "Kingdom" TV series directed by Danish Director Lars Von Trier. That same year Universal pictures hired him to organize a location scouting trip to Haiti for Academy Award screenwriters Stephen Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson. The two writers were developing a screenplay for the motion picture project "Rockwood". In 1999 Ron Howard's company Imagine Entertainment sent for him in Japan to supervise a location scouting trip to Haiti and the Dominican Republic with New Zealand director Lee Tamahori. In 2001, he was hired as a Production Manager on the French / Canadian film "Royal Bonbon", the film was shot entirely in the northern part of Haiti. His most recent work has been done with acclaimed Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck who used his services on the newly released feature film "Moloch Tropical".

An experienced documentary filmmaker, Delatour founded in 2004 Amistad Films. He is currently working on two film projects.

Source:
www.amistadfilms.com/about.html

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Als Sohn haïtianischer Auswanderer 1955 in Caracas, Venezuela, geboren, wächst Delatour in Haiti und später in New York auf. Er studiert zunächst Film an der Columbia School of Motion Pictures Film, dann Latin American Studies an der UCLA. Es folgen Engagements für ausländische Produktionsfirmen in über 15 Ländern an der Seite namhafter Regisseure wie Lars von Tier, Wes Craven oder Raoul Peck. 2001 kehrt Delatour nach Haïti zurück und gründet seine eigene Produktionsfirma „Amistad Films". 2002 produziert er den Dokumentarfilm „40 ans après… Roussan Camille", das Portrait eines bedeutenden, in Haïti selbst jedoch kaum bekannten haïtianischen Dichters. Es folgen „Un certain bord de mer"über 100 Jahre arabische Migration nach Haïti, dann „Haïti aujourd'hui : Violence ou la Paix ?". In Folge des Erdbebens am 12 Januar 2010 dreht Delatour den Film „35 longues secondes".

Source:
www.africavenir.org.