All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt follows Mack, a Black woman in rural Mississippi, across a span of decades from the early 1970s to the present. Told in fragments rather than a straight line, the film moves between childhood and adulthood, tracing her bonds with her father, her sister and the people she loves, and the losses and changes that shape her. Touch carries much of the meaning: hands, embraces and small gestures reveal what words leave unsaid, and the film is largely without dialogue. The place itself, its land, water and weather, is as much a subject as the people in it.

The film is the first feature directed by Raven Jackson, who also wrote the screenplay, following her 2018 short Nettles. Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski and Maria Altamirano produced it. Kaylee Nicole Johnson plays young Mack, with Chris Chalk as Isaiah, Jayah Henry as young Josie and Sheila Atim as Evelyn among a cast of 24.

Released in November 2023, it runs 97 minutes. On IMDb it holds 5.9/10 from around 1,500 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 5.4/10 from 29 votes, a much smaller sample. A critics' rating of 7.6/10 from 70 reviews places it well above those audience scores.