Raven Jackson
Directing
Biography
Raven Jackson is an American award-winning filmmaker, poet, and photographer from Tennessee. Her work often explores landscapes of indefinable experiences and emotions, as well as the body's relationship to nature. Her short films Nettles and A Guide to Breathing Underwater are currently streaming on the Criterion Channel. She is a Cave Canem fellow and holds MFAs from New York University's Graduate Film Program and the New School's Writing Program. Her chapbook of poetry, little violences, is available from Cutbank Literary Magazine. Raven’s debut narrative feature, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, made in partnership with Maria Altamirano, PASTEL, and A24, world-premiered in the US Dramatic Competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The film has received support from Cinereach, SFFILM, the Gotham, Film Independent, Tribeca Film Institute, New Orleans Film Society, Ikusmira Berriak, Indie Memphis, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, and Westridge Foundation.
Known For
A traumatic head injury leaves Sophie with extreme memory loss. In her quest to put the pieces of her life back together—with help from her husband and friends—Sophie begins to question the truth behind her picture-perfect life.
Surface
Tender caresses and enveloping embraces are portals into the life of Mack, a Black woman in Mississippi. Winding through the anticipation, love, and heartbreak she experiences from childhood to adulthood, the expressionist journey is an ode to connection — with loved ones and with place.
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Nettles are stinging plants. In six chapters, this short film explores stinging moments in the lives of different girls and women.
Nettles
"In the aftermath of her divorce, a woman in midlife sets out to find her bearings -- and her mojo -- as she confronts the challenges and surprises of life beyond marriage."
House of Teeth
Traversing New York City, a dancer seeks freedom and peace through movement.
A Guide to Breathing Underwater
A rogue ex-FBI agent, T-Bone, hunts criminals his own way. When he crosses paths with Elise, a sharp teen searching for her missing sister, they team up to take on America's brutal slave trade.
St. Michael's Intern
A hardworking high school senior faces circumstances beyond her control that may hinder her path to college.
Soñadora
Speaking through gesture, a dancer falls back into the land she grew from.
Røtter
Six-year-old Lulu's imagination takes flight when she conflates evidence of her Dad's infidelity with a dark fairy tale.