Any resistance to showing the film Down In The Delta in Canada would be a racist act, the film's co-producer and co-star Wesley Snipes said yesterday.

"It's racist. Tell them. There you go," Snipes said in an interview about conflicting news that the Canadian commercial release of the family drama was in some doubt.

Down In The Delta made its Canadian debut last night as a Special Presentation in the Toronto film festival. In attendance were Snipes, co-star Alfre Woodard and the peerless Maya Angelou, the acclaimed poet, dancer, historian, educator, actress, playwright, screenwriter and civil rights activist who makes her directorial debut on Delta.

Alliance Releasing officials are apparently concerned about the box-office potential of Down In The Delta in this country. But, by late yesterday, after Snipes had expressed concern, there were plans to release it this fall at least in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

Snipes, raising his melodious voice to a passion-filled roar over the issue, said his film has universal appeal and should be shown around the world, including in Canada.

"Damn right! Absolutely! That's one of the things that we (he and his partners at Amen-Ra Films) like about the film, that the film has the ability to transcend cultural boundaries as well as politics. Because it is fundamentally about compassion and family and respect."

Despite the cult of youth in America, the movie also pays homage to the elderly by showing them to be "one of our best resources," Snipes said.

Ironically, Down In The Delta was filmed in large part in the Toronto region as a stand-in both for urban Chicago and rural Mississippi, where the story is set. The movie is the emotional saga of a troubled Chicago mother (played by Oscar-nominee Woodard) who is forced to go back to her family's roots in Mississippi and rebuilt her life and her self-respect.

It took Amen-Ra Films four-and-a-half years to get the film made, a frustrated Snipes said. Miramax was finally involved. It did not help that he became a movie star in that period, he said. He still did not have clout in the corridors of power.

"Let me put it in this context," Snipes said about being a star in Hollywood and trying to convince studio executives to back a project such as Down In The Delta.

"As long as they are paying you, you should be happy. It's like the classic 'dumb blonde' syndrome. They don't think that you have brains or that you understand the business that you're in or that you have any interests outside of being glamourized.

"Then you throw in a little bit of coppertone, a little color into it," he said, touching his hand to his glistening black cheek, "and it really gets: 'Oh my God!' "

Being a Hollywood actor is not unlike being a Roman gladiator, at least in terms of the hierarchy, Snipes said.

"The gladiators were admired and revered but they were still living in the bowels of Rome. They still had to fight for their living, you know."


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