Biography

Clarence Thomas Delgado (born in Dakar in 1953) is a Senegalese film director, film producer, screenwriter and camera operator. Delgado was born in Dakar to a family originating in Cape Verde and went to primary and secondary school in Dakar. He joined his uncle first in Switzerland and later in Portugal, where his uncle was Senegalese ambassador. Delgado then worked as a camera operator at the Algerian Radio Television Center (Radiodiffusion-télévision algérienne, RTA) in 1977 and studied directing and production at the Portuguese Cinema Institute in Lisbon. After returning to Senegal, he assisted Paulin Soumanou Vieyra making his movie En résidence surveillé (Under house arrest, 1981).

Later, Delgado was assistant director for several short and feature films, including Camp de Thiaroye (Ousmane Sembène, 1987), Les Caprices d'un rivière (Bernard Giraudeau, 1996) and Moolaadé (Ousmane Sembène, 2004), and produced L'Appel des arènes (Cheikh Ndiaye, 2005). He wrote the scenario and directed his feature film Niiwam (1988), an adaptation of a short story by Ousmane Sembène, which was awarded the OCIC Award at the 1991 Amiens International Film Festival. Clarence Delgado was a president of the Cinéastes Sénégalais Associés organisation (Associated Senegalese Filmmakers, CINESEAS).