Raven Jackson Talks Love, Patience and ‘Small Moments That Make up a Life’ in Barry Jenkins-Produced ‘All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt’
23.09.2023 - 18:17
/ variety.com
Marta Balaga “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt” director Raven Jackson is taking her time. “I’m interested in patience,” she says ahead of her feature debut’s San Sebastian screening, following the Sundance premiere earlier this year. “I am interested in slow cinema, even though in the U.S.
it’s not as prominent. When I was in the edit [with Lee Chatametikool], I knew that many audience members are not used to such a pace. But that challenge excited me.” “I am working on a short now that takes its time too, but I wonder to what degree it will continue with my next feature.
There’s no world where it makes sense for a hug to last 15 seconds and I’m not sure if every one of my films will ask for such patience. If they do, I’m going to give it to them.” In the A24 release “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt” – produced by Maria Altamirano, “Moonlight’s” Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski and Mark Ceryak – Jackson focuses on a Black woman’s life in Mississippi, as well as the people and places that are important to her. Charleen McClure, “Obi-Wan Kenobi’s” Moses Ingram, Kaylee Nicole Johnson, Reginald Helms Jr., Sheila Atim, Chris Chalk, Jayah Henry and Zainab Jah star.
“Making this film mirrored these [on-screen] connections in a lot of ways, which was beautiful. I wanted to show love that is present,” she adds. “Showing this community, this feeling of being held and supported, was important to me.
Even when these characters can’t be together or if they are never going to see each other again, at least they will have that embrace. Jackson, a poet and a photographer, tried to bring her own sensibility to the unhurried, sensual story. “Recently, I was talking to someone and they compared this film to a poem.