Nine-year-old Stan is a devoted supporter of Beerschot football club. When he discovers that his great-grandfather Raymond Braine was once one of Belgium’s greatest football stars, he cannot understand why almost no one remembers him today. Together with his grandfather Luc, Raymond’s son, Stan follows the traces left behind in family stories, archives and football stadiums. As he writes his own book about Raymond, their search becomes a journey into how stories are remembered, forgotten and passed on.
Ralph Collier (1990) is a Belgian documentary filmmaker and curator. He works at the intersection of film and contemporary art, and is currently a curator at M Leuven. Alongside his curatorial practice, he develops and directs documentary projects, often exploring art, history and stories that risk being forgotten. He previously created the documentary series Aanwinst for VRT Canvas.
The story of Raymond Braine has circulated in my family for years, but it was the curiosity of my nephew Stan that suddenly gave it a new urgency. His desire to understand who his great-grandfather was opened up a history that had remained largely untouched for a long time.
What interests me most is the way Stan relates to a past he can never fully know. He does not look for one definitive truth. Instead, through writing, drawing and imagination, he tries to make sense of the fragments he encounters. His grandfather Luc approaches the same history through memory and loss. For him, Raymond is not simply a famous footballer from the past, but a father he only knew for a short time.
Their different perspectives form the heart of the film. Through them, In Search of Raymond becomes a story not only about football, but about remembering and forgetting, about the fragility of family history and about the ways stories are reshaped as they pass from one generation to another.
For me, the film is an intimate exploration of the space between what we know, what we remember and what we imagine. How easily can a name disappear, and what can happen when someone decides to start listening again?
In Search of Raymond is a documentary about memory, family and the stories that pass from one generation to the next. At its centre are Stan and his grandfather Luc, who approach the same past from very different perspectives. Stan tries to imagine a great-grandfather he never knew, while Luc looks back on a father he only knew for a short time.
Their search for Raymond Braine, once a celebrated footballer for Beerschot, the Belgian national team and Sparta Prague, takes them through family archives, old newspapers and the places where he once played. But rather than reconstructing a definitive biography, the film explores what happens in the space between fact, memory and imagination.
Through Stan’s writing and drawings, Luc’s memories and the fragments preserved in archives, Raymond’s story gradually takes shape again. In doing so, In Search of Raymond asks a broader question: how does someone disappear from collective memory, and what does it mean when a new generation decides to remember?
In Search of Raymond is part of the Ket&Doc collection