It doesn’t end or begin. Just changes form.
Water. Hands. Dirt. Fingers. Raindrops. An embrace. Tears. Letting go. Returning to that which made you are core aspects of All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, the debut of writer and director Raven Jackson. Utilising a unique form of narrative structure the film chronicles and charts the growth of Mackenzie (nicknamed Mack), played by Charleen McClure, Kaylee Nicole Johnson [young], and Zainab Jah [older]). Growing up as a Black woman in rural Mississippi, the film has us bear witness to glimpses of her life; her upbringing, heartache, the life of her sister Josie (Moses Ingram and Jayah Henry [young]), the love of her father Isaiah (Chris Chalk), the death of her mother Evelyn (Sheila Atim), the connection she has with her love Wood (Reginald Helms Jr. and Preston McDowell [young]), the birth of her child, and so many more small and large aspects of a life that define a person, for better or worse.
Instead of a linear narrative, Raven Jackson presents Mack’s existence as a series of vignettes, out of order and singular in their visual and emotional execution, leaving it up to the audience to piece it all together. This is not a rollercoaster of drama characterised by traditional form or overt emotionality.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt whispers to you its beauty, presenting a life as fractured memories framing experience as context. Anecdotes and anthologies of love and grief, of joy and pain, and each scene of these aspects are on screen for as long as they need to be.
This is original filmmaking that is confident and gentle, a personal statement on the nature of life as if fully formed from the heart of Raven Jackson, a quality so crucial for debut films, as well as a testament to the confident editing of Lee Chatametikool. The fact that one can follow this puzzle box of time and place for Mack’s life and feel some deep connection to her whole journey by the end is a marvellous feat.
The film’s performances also share this level of delicacy and subtlety, with both young and older actors and actresses crafting intimate and well-crafted portraits of this family stretched across the generations. One feels the longing, the despair, the unconditional love, and the feeling of finality all within such abstract glimpses of actor’s hands and shoulders. Mack is the central perspective, and by seeing things with her eyes, focusing on abstract and unique angles of connection, we feel welcomed into such a beautiful character and performance. Charleen McClure and Moses Ingram absolutely deserve high praise, but all nine main performers, as well as Jannie Hampton as Grandma Betty, deserve acclaim for bringing to life people we can follow and love unconditionally.
Raven Jackson also makes a terrific mark stylistically with All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt beyond its bold narrative approach that may not be to all audiences’ tastes. Jackson shoots the film on 35mm celluloid with cinematographer Jomo Fray, to stunning effect. Each frame feels curated and dedicated, born from deep places of memory and intimacy, using the saturated colours of film to capture the rich summery feel of rural Mississippi landscapes and highlight stark tones of red, blue, green, and gold creating a dreamlike effect akin to Terrence Malick or Chloé Zhao.
Jackson also works with Miguel Calvo as supervising sound editor and his whole sound team to craft a rich world of sonic montages, with dense layers of nature and water effects mixed with softer tones of human life, all reminding one of the brilliance of George Lucas and Walter Murch’s collaborations in THX-1138 and American Graffiti.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt requires a certain level of patience to bear witness to minute long shots of hands intertwined, minimal dialogue, heavy sounds of insects, a story jumbled up and out of order, and even a perplexing title to a wide audience.
Raven Jackson’s debut film opens the door gently and without words beckons one in, takes you by the hand, and quietly guides you down a path of immense beauty, revelatory reality, and ultimately an unspoken yearning that we all feel.
The climactic scene of the film, involving Mack and her daughter, brings all the visual and thematic elements into one succinct moment, underscored by an incredible score by Sasha Gordon and Victor Magro, and is perhaps one of the most beautiful scenes of any film I have seen this decade.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is a one-of-a-kind narrative experience that speaks to a filmmaker on the verge of absolute greatness and will surely speak to something inside you that never ends or begins, but merely changes form.
Director and writer: Raven Jackson
Starring: Charleen McClure, Moses Ingram, Reginald Helms Jr., Chris Chalk, and Sheila Atim
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt has already screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Streaming or physical media release is TBC.
The Curb will soon be publishing a full Q&A with Raven Jackson by our very own Nadine Whitney about ALL DIRT ROADS TASTE OF SALT. Read her capsule review here.
