All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

The film charts the growth, loves, and heartbreaks of a Black woman in Mississippi, from her childhood through to her adult years.^[5]

• Charleen McClure as Mack
  • Kaylee Nicole Johnson as young Mack
  • Zainab Jah as older Mack
• Moses Ingram as Josie
  • Jayah Henry as young Josie
• Reginald Helms Jr. as Wood
  • Preston McDowell as young Wood
• Sheila Atim as Evelyn
• Chris Chalk as Isaiah^[6]

In February 2021, it was announced that Raven Jackson would write and direct the film, with Barry Jenkins set to serve as a producer under his Pastel banner, and A24 set to produce and distribute.^[7]

Principal photography took place in Tennessee and in Vicksburg and Jackson, Mississippi in the fall of 2021.^[8][9]

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2023.^[10] It also screened at the 71st San Sebastián International Film Festival^[11] and the 2023 New York Film Festival.^[12][13] The film was released by A24 on November 3, 2023.^[1][14]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 65 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's consensus reads: "For viewers willing and able to adjust to its leisurely, recursive rhythm, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt is a beautifully elegant exploration of grief and longing."^[15] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 87 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[16]

Richard Brody, in The New Yorker, described it as the most distinctive film of 2023 from a strict perspective of inventive narrative form.^[17]