All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

Like a visual poem of a half-forgotten memory, this ode to a Black woman’s joys and tragedies in the Deep South is rendered exquisitely tactile on the big screen.

Mack’s life unfurls like a dream. As a child in 1960s Mississippi, she learns to fish with her father and sister, while her mother teaches her to cook. Meanwhile, her grandmother inducts her into ancestral and cultural lore. Her connections – to her family, her community and the natural world that surrounds and sustains her – are deeply felt and beautifully depicted across the decades and layers of her coming of age.

Named one of the top 10 independent films of 2023 by the National Board of Review, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is award-winning poet and photographer Raven Jackson’s mesmerising debut feature. Shot in gorgeous 35mm, the film ebbs and flows through the currents of Mack’s life, propelled by a visceral soundscape and a sparse but revealing script. Fans of Barry Jenkins (who has a producer credit here) or Terrence Malick will revel in its languid rhythms and slippery temporal cadences, expertly stitched together by editor Lee Chatametikool (known for his work with Apichatpong Weerasethakul). Rich and hauntingly evocative, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is an impressionistic, kaleidoscopic masterpiece.

“Jackson is the epitome of a filmmaker whose gaze truly makes everything seem previously unseen ... A monumental work of elemental soulfulness and ravishing poetry.” – The Wrap