First Films: All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

First Films is a cross-genre series designed to spark creative inquiry around the elements, processes, and structure behind making a “first film”. Whether a directorial debut or a shift in genre, this series showcases debut projects from local, national, and international filmmakers who are pushing the medium to tell vital stories. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is the directorial debut from filmmaker, poet, and photographer Raven Jackson. Described as, “a haunting and richly layered portrait, a beautiful ode to the generations of people and places that shape us”, the film invites audiences into the lushly quotidian lives of a Black Mississippi family as seen through the eyes of both child and adult Mack, the story’s protagonist, as they navigate love, grief, and persistence across generations.

The film screening will be followed by a brief Q&A with the director.

If you would like to request accommodations, please email [email protected].

About Raven Jackson

Raven Jackson is an award-winning filmmaker, poet, and photographer from Tennessee. Her work often explores landscapes of indefinable experiences and emotions, as well as the body’s relationship to nature. Recently nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature and a Gotham Award for Breakthrough Director, Raven’s debut narrative film, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, made in partnership with Maria Altamirano, PASTEL, and A24, world-premiered in the US Dramatic Competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, and was named one of the top ten movies of the year by The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and RogerEbert.com. The film has screened at the New York Film Festival, San Sebastián International Film Festival, BFI London, AFI Fest, and more.

She has served as a Story Editor for HBO's adaptation of Sula, based on Toni Morrison's novel, and co-wrote an episode of the Apple Series Surface. A 2024 Sundance Momentum Fellow and Rideback Rise Resident, her short films Nettles and A Guide to Breathing Underwater are currently streaming on the Criterion Channel. Stories From a Place Where All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, the companion book for her debut feature, is currently out from A24. Her photography can be found in the book, as well as in BOMB Magazine. She is a Cave Canem fellow and holds MFAs from New York University's Graduate Film Program and the New School's Writing Program. Her chapbook of poetry, little violences, is available from Cutbank Literary Magazine.

Host or Publisher The Clifton House