all dirt roads taste of salt
TFI Suppport
TFI Network 2020
Logline
Through lyrical portraits evoking the texture of memories, ALL DIRT ROADS TASTE OF SALT viscerally and sensorially explores the life of Mack, a Black woman in Tennessee, from her youth to her older years.
Raven Jackson
Director, Screenwriter, Producer
A native of Tennessee, Raven Jackson is an award-winning filmmaker, poet, and photographer. Her work often explores landscapes of indefinable experiences and emotions, as well as the body’s relationship to nature. A participant of Film at Lincoln Center’s 2019 Artist Academy during the 57th New York Film Festival, she is currently in development for her debut feature, ALL DIRT ROADS TASTE OF SALT, which lyrically explores the life of a Black woman in Tennessee. A Cinereach Development Grant, SFFILM Rainin Screenwriting Grant, and SFFILM Westridge Development Grant recipient, the project was one of five selected for the Ikusmira Berriak Residency in San Sebastián, Spain, and was handpicked by Barry Jenkins for Indie Memphis’ 2019 Black Filmmaker Residency in Screenwriting.
Maria Altamirano
Producer
Maria Altamirano is a Peruvian-American producer based in New York. She seeks to create work that explores the complexity of the human experience and brings underrepresented voices to the forefront. She has produced several short films featured at key festivals around the world, including Cannes, SXSW, Slamdance, San Sebastián, New Orleans, and Palm Springs ShortFest. She is in post-production for her first feature, Alexis Gambis’s SON OF MONARCHS, and in development for Raven Jackson’s ALL DIRT ROADS TASTE OF SALT, a narrative feature lyrically exploring the life of a Black woman in the American South, and a recipient of prestigious SFFILM and Cinereach grants. Maria completed NYU’s selective M.B.A./M.F.A. program, a conjunction of Tisch School of the Arts and Stern School of Business. While at NYU, she was awarded the First Run Film Festival Graduate Craft Award in Producing in 2017 & 2018, as well as the 2017 Media Services Award, given to a graduate film candidate in the third year of the program for producing an outstanding body of films over the course of their studies. Prior to filmmaking, Maria was Market Research Manager at Paramount Pictures where she generated key development and marketing insights for the studio’s slate. She is a California native and holds a B.A. in Sociology and Political Science from UCLA.
Jomo Fray
Director of Photography
Jomo Fray is an award-winning cinematographer whose work has screened at festivals worldwide. He most recently served as Director of Photography on PORT AUTHORITY, which premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and was executive produced by Martin Scorsese, and on SELAH AND THE SPADES, which premiered in the NEXT section at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. By utilizing a strong background in cinematography, philosophy, and photography, his aim is to create innovative and evocative visual stories. He seeks to build upon a long tradition of experiential storytelling--films that strive to have the viewer not only see the story, but feel it as well. Fray was awarded the 2016 Kodak Vision Award, the 2017 ARRI Volker Bahnemann Award in Outstanding Cinematography, the Roger and Chaz Ebert Foundation Fellowship at the 2017 Independent Spirit Awards, and most recently a Special Jury Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and a Grand Jury Award at SXSW for his work on the film, EMERGENCY. Along with these honors, he was selected as a 2017 Project Involve Cinematography Fellow as well as a 2018 Ebert Sundance Fellow.