THE DELTA
US, 1996, 85 minutes, Colour.
Shayne Gray, Tang Chan.
Directed by Ira Sachs.
This is the first feature film by writer-director, Ira Sachs. He had made some short films but this was the beginning of his career, for the next 25 years, at least, in filmmaking. His hometown was Memphis, Tennessee, and he uses this location for The Delta, the town and its various neighbourhoods, the vastly flowing river.
Ira Sachs is noted for his exploration in all his films of relationships, with a special focus on exploring homosexual relationships. This is very much the case in this film, focusing initially on an 18-year-old young man, from a comfortable family, with a girlfriend and local friends, gathering together, especially fur drink and drugs. We also see him cruising, sexual encounters with anonymous men. Some tension with his girlfriend, he goes to an adult movie arcade, encountering one of the men he has previously met, who states that he was here hoping that the young man would turn up.
The young man is played by Shayne Gray, his only feature film. For those interested in the background of the filmmaking as well as Shayne Gray himself and his subsequent career, he has a very long blog entry under his own name in the IMDb, informative about the making of the film, Ira Sachs, and his own personal life. The other central character is Vietnamese, Vietnamese mother, black American father who had left the family, John. He is gay, cruises, has a local backup community. This is the only film for the actor, Tang Chan.
The film focuses on an evening that the two spend together on the boat owned by the young man’s father, buying fireworks and setting them off illegally, pursued by the police, talking, swimming together, the hopes of John, and an ultimate rejection by the young man who returns to his family.
The rest of the film focuses on John, his friends and family, ordinary life, going into bars, picking up a large man who is flattered, happy to spend the night with John Dan who, to the surprise of the audience, strangles his client. A dramatic conclusion, insight into the character of John, sexuality, emotional needs, sense of betrayal, vengeance.
While the film made some impact in its time, some awards for its 16mm grainy photography, it can now be seen as a prelude to the more significant films made by Ira Sachs.
