The light captured by a small camera penetrates the intimacy of two embraced beings, making us resonate with the ineffable, something that is there but in another form, encrypted in visible light, in what we call cinema.

This reality, which is inherently mysterious, offers itself as a vehicle to reveal the life of a woman and her community in the depths of North America.

Their relationship with every aspect of the surrounding nature is subtly referenced by a complex visual tapestry, whose rhythm is the poetry present in the sounds of the world, in the blink of an eye, and the flickering of a light that illuminates our birth or filters as a final gleam in death.

In a cinematic time that reminds us equally of Malick, Godard, or Chantal Akerman, director Raven Jackson's depth infuses poetic syntax into each of her scenes or vignettes.

This beautiful film demands the same sensitivity from those of us who try to silently gaze at what seems to have resonated before, strongly, within the gaze of its author.

The result is to experience within ourselves the joys and compassion that emerge from the light reflected on the screen of "All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt" (United States, 2023).

Filmed in 35mm during the pandemic in Mississippi, United States, this cinematic poem invites us to pause, to commune, and to give meaning to every moment that life allows us to share with the rain, with our siblings, with the fish, and with that Presence that embraces us and calls us insistently.

In this way, the SIGNIS Jury present at the 71st San Sebastian International Film Festival, composed of Edorta Kortadi (president), Adrián Baccaro, and Édgar Rubio, awarded its prize to "All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt" by Raven Jackson.

In their justification for the award, the Jury noted, "Through a poetic cinematic proposal that embodies the subtle relationships between beings and presences of the world, the young director manages to convey, in her debut film, the everyday life of African-American women, in their sorrows and joys, loves and losses. This beautiful visual landscape reveals a spirituality in the form of fish and rain, hugs and compassion, dialogues and looks, symbols of the mystery that dwells within us."

Edgar Rubio