Summary
- Collider’s Perri Nemiroff talks with the cast and writer-director of East of Wall at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
- East of Wall is a docufiction film about Tabatha Zimiga, a woman who houses a group of wayward teens and tends to her ranch in the Badlands of South Dakota.
- Writer-director Kate Beecroft, Tabatha and Porshia Zimiga, and Jennifer Ehle discuss living together for three years, premiering at Sundance with leads making their acting debuts, and how they built their trust together.
The Badlands is a tough place to be in. And yet, despite its harsh climate and rough terrain, one would be surprised by the warmth and resilience exhibited by those living in it. Serving as writer-director, Kate Beecroft’s debut feature film, East of Wall, follows Beecroft’s latest subject, Tabatha Zimiga, a young, tattooed horse trainer who has no interest in conforming to society’s standards. Despite her rebellious heart, Tabatha is wounded by the death of her husband. Grappling with unresolved grief and financial insecurity, Tabatha also serves as the caretaker for a group of wayward teenagers seeking refuge in her far-from-perfect ranch in the Badlands.
A project that took five years to make, East of Wall could not get any more personal for Beecroft. Living with Tabatha and her daughter Porshia Zimiga for three years, Beecroft got a first-hand account of Zimiga’s unique ranch. With the American West oftentimes being a male-dominated world, Tabatha, Porshia, and their fellow teens prove that through strength and companionship, no place is too rugged or rough for them. Also starring Jennifer Ehle (Special Ops: Lioness) and Scoot McNairy (Speak No Evil), East of Wall is a 97-minute love letter to the Badlands and the untold stories that have yet to permeate out of the region.
In this interview, Collider’s very own Perri Nemiroff had the opportunity to speak with Beecroft, Tabatha, Porshia, and Ehle at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at the Rendezvous Cinema Center. In this interview, they share a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the making of the movie and the lessons learned along the way. Both fact and fiction, this story is the best of both worlds, combining seasoned professionals with acting newcomers, working with a traditional script, and simultaneously winging moments—making the project a creative hybrid of different methods.
Kate Beecroft Lived with Tabatha and Porshia Zimiga for Three Years
“I had never seen anybody with such power and force as these women.”
PERRI NEMIROFF: Because it’s a festival debut, a lot of our audience will not know about your movie just yet. Kate, would you mind telling everybody what East of Wall is about?
KATE BEECROFT: East of Wall is a docufiction film in the NEXT Program. Because it’s docufiction, I’ve lived with Tabatha Zimiga for three years and worked on this project for five years. It’s inspired by her life and her family’s life in the Badlands of South Dakota. After the death of her husband, she’s wrestling with unresolved grief, and she has a group of wayward teenagers who live at a ranch with her.
I was watching your “Meet the Artist” video for Sundance, and it walked me through the process of making this movie, but I have many follow-up questions. First, you mention that you were driving around the country filming at the time. What were you filming? Were you deliberately seeking something to turn into a feature?
BEECROFT: Absolutely not. I didn’t think that I’d ever be, not for a while, ready to do a feature. Me and my DP, [Austin Shelton], were just driving around. I was doing sound, and he had his camera, and we were just driving around Colorado and Nebraska, trying to find faces and interesting stories. “Maybe we can make them into a short film or some cool B-roll for a music video…” Something like that. I was really not expecting the next five years of my life to stumble upon this, but I couldn’t be happier.
The way you put it in that video is that you met a woman who pointed you in Tabatha’s direction, you got there, and you wound up spending three years living with them. Do you remember the specific moment when you knew with certainty, “This is what my film needs to be about?”
BEECROFT: Yeah. I met this woman, and she told me, “If you want a real story, head east of Wall, and there’ll be a woman named Tabatha waiting for you.” That’s exactly what I did. I pulled up to the ranch, and I had never seen anybody with such power and force as these women. They were so young, too. Porshia was a tween at that point. I’m trying to think about my “aha” moment, but there really wasn’t one. I was just falling so madly in love with them all the time that I became obsessed, and I just needed to make this film about them.
‘East of Wall’ Is Tabatha and Porshia’s Acting Debut
“She gained our trust,” Tabatha says of writer-director Beecroft.
I’ll ask for the reverse now. Porshia and Tabatha, someone comes your way and wants to make a movie about you. Do you remember the very first moment when you knew with certainty that Kate was someone that you could trust your story and yourselves with?
PORSHIA ZIMIGA: She came over to our house, like, five years ago. I was 12, and she was super sweet. She gained our trust, and she just became part of our lives. She still is. We love Kate.
BEECROFT: Love you too, baby.
TABATHA ZIMIGA: It’s kind of hard to explain, but from the moment I met Kate, we just felt connected. I feel safe with Kate, and that’s kind of a rare thing.
You two essentially have to learn to act, and Kate mentioned in that video that she spent a little bit of time teaching you some techniques. Do you remember the specific thing she taught you that made you feel like, “I can do this, I can act in this film?”
PORSHIA ZIMIGA: She made us show emotion through our eyes more than anything so that you could feel it through the eyes.
BEECROFT: Honestly, they’re already so naturally talented that it was a gift to work with them.
You can feel it while you’re watching the movie. I feel like acting, no matter how much experience you’ve had, is challenging craft, and here you two are with no professional experience, leading a film, and it just seems to come quite naturally to you. Did this experience leave you with the itch to do more?
PORSHIA ZIMIGA: To me, yeah. I wanna do more acting. A lot more acting, honestly. I think it’s really fun.
Do you have a favorite kind of movie?
PORSHIA ZIMIGA: Scary movies, for sure.
What is your favorite scary movie?
PORSHIA ZIMIGA: I like almost all of them. The Saw franchise is my favorite.
Horror is my favorite genre and slasher is my favorite sub-genre. You’re speaking my language right now!
PORSHIA ZIMIGA: And Scream.
Scream is my second favorite movie of all time!
BEECROFT: She’s also a huge, huge Mia Goth fan.
PORSHIA ZIMIGA: I love Mia Goth.
25:07

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TABATHA ZIMIGA: I love horror movies, too. I’ve always loved horror movies. Anything like a powerful horse movie or the underdog rising to the top. Those kinds of movies I really like, too.
Working with First-Time Directors Is a ‘Sweet Spot’ for Jennifer Ehle
“There’s a freedom, and there’s an autonomy.”
Jennifer, you are often acting opposite iconic veterans. When an opportunity to work with a first-time feature director comes your way, and also a group of non-professional actors, what is it that makes you say to yourself, frankly, “This is worth my time, and I feel like I’m in good hands here?”
JENNIFER EHLE: I’ve worked with a lot of first-time directors, and it’s one of the sweet spots for me. It’s wonderful to work with somebody where nobody else cares what they’re doing, so nobody else is sort of watching over their shoulder. There’s a freedom, and there’s an autonomy. I was already interested when I knew that Kate was a first-time director, and then the passion of somebody who has immersed themselves for that many years and established these relationships. The script is amazing. The world is amazing. It’s not something that we get a glimpse into very often.
You’ve had loads of experience yourself, but I do love highlighting how even the most experienced actor could have something to gain from folks coming into it with a newer, fresher perspective. Is there anything about being surrounded by a bunch of non-professional actors that helped even you, with all your experience, find something new in your own craft?
EHLE: Yes. I wish I could go back and do it again because I think I’ve learned so much watching them yesterday in the film. Can we do it again?
BEECROFT: Absolutely! East of Wall 2 – Roy’s Revenge.
How Does Filming a “Docudrama” Work?
“I basically am directing people how I wish I was directed.”
Can you walk us through a day in the life of a filmmaker directing a docudrama? Is it a traditional script that you’re working with, or is it more of an outline?
BEECROFT: It was a traditional script. Also, being a first-time director, I have to kind of appease, just so they feel secure. So, there were certain things that I knew secretly in the back of my head that I might wanna improvise, but I would just do it on the day, or certain things that I knew I was gonna put in the edit later on. When you’re working with first-time actors, wild animals, teenagers, you have to go in as prepared as you can and then be prepared to just let it go. Hopefully, the forces will point you in the right direction. There were certain times when we were like, “Okay, we’re gonna have to wing this one, but it’s good.” And the ones that we ended up “winging” because we weren’t precious about it ended up being my favorite moments in the film.
I also love actors. I love these brilliant minds. Any time they wanted to come to me like, “Hey, I wouldn’t say something like that,” I’m like, “Great, what would you say? Let’s change it.” And so that’s really exciting for me. I used to be an actor, and I basically am directing people how I wish I was directed.
Can you name something specific that you strive to bring to your actors that you wish other directors had done for you in the past, but then also give me an example of the opposite, something that another director did for you that made you say, “I appreciate that, and I will put it in my back pocket and use it as a director myself?”
BEECROFT: What I always wanted as an actor was for a director to know that I have a brain, too. Especially because I was young when I was acting. I was in my early 20s; I was a teenager. For example, like Porshia, and the things that the kids would come up with. There are things that I would never come up with, and they’re brilliant.
I went to drama school in England, so I was mostly doing Shakespeare and it is a different beast. You have more time with the directors. On stage, I did feel like I had good connections with directors, but I think some things change when you’re doing something cinematic because there’s so much going on. You don’t have time for that prep, so it’s kind of like, “Okay, we’re gonna throw you in here. Spit these lines out, and let’s go to the next take.”
Porsha Zimiga Improvises Most of Her Lines in ‘East of Wall’
Can you tell me something Porshia came up with on the spot that’s now in the finished film?
BEECROFT: Porshia is an incredible barrel racer and rider. It was a lot of stuff when you were riding that I didn’t know about, or moments of you improvising, too, with the other kids.
TABATHA ZIMIGA: Didn’t she mostly improvise most of her lines anyway? Like, “I’m gonna say it how I wanna say it.”
BEECROFT: Yep! And I loved it. That’s so important. We can’t have a false note. We can’t have something that feels like me, to be honest, because it’s their life, and I don’t come from their life. I learned from them, and they’re directors, as well, in my mind.
What a fascinating way to put it. Oftentimes, I’m asking directors, especially when they’re working with a script that they didn’t write, where they could find space for their own voice in that material. Are you able to strike a balance between making sure their experience and them as real people is well represented, but also making sure East of Wall feels like your film?
BEECROFT: Yeah, it is a fine line. But it’s also one of those things that, I remember Tabby at one point said, “Why are you making a film about me? I don’t understand what’s interesting about my life.” That’s when I knew that I needed to show them. It’s really the biggest love letter I could give anyone was this film. It’s me elevating the things that I love naturally about them if that makes sense.
Absolutely. To highlight a couple of specific moments in the movie, can you isolate the single most challenging scene for you in this film and explain to me how you overcame that challenge and crushed it?
EHLE: The most challenging scene for me in the film isn’t in the film anymore, but Kate’s brother wrote a song that my character Tracey sang at an open mic at a bar, and I am not a singer. When Kate called me and said, “Do you sing?” And I said, “Well, does it have to be good?” She said, “No.” And I said, “Well then, yeah, I do.” It was very liberating to sing that. It was really great.
BEECROFT: I don’t think I’ve smiled so much while filming something. It was pure joy and freedom when you sang.
EHLE: And the refrain was, “Goddamn, I’m free.” Can I just say kind of thing that Kate would do? The script was there, it was definitely a “script” script, but then one time, we’d been at a rodeo for three days, and half the ring was a mud puddle, just a huge mud puddle by the end of three days, and everybody left, the rodeo and left town, it was night, it was dark…
TABATHA ZIMIGA: 50 degrees out.
EHLE: And Kate said, “I have this idea. Can you all go in and just play in the mud? And we’ll just film.” They blasted music, and we all went in there and had a mud fight.
PORSHIA ZIMIGA: I was lucky I was not in that.
Oh, I love that!
BEECROFT: It was one of my favorites.
EHLE: That’s one of my favorite bits in the film.
BEECROFT: Me too. It’s just pure joy. It’s all of you guys actually just being yourselves.
PORSHIA ZIMIGA: For me, I think the most difficult scenes were, well, there’s one in California where I had to fake being on a horse and cry. That one that one was really difficult. My mom played some weird music for that.
TABATHA ZIMIGA: We needed to get into the moment, so I played the Titanic theme song for a minute.
PORSHIA: And then the one on the couch when I’m crying, that one was difficult to do. Some of those are real tears.
Tabatha Zimiga Wants to Bring the “New West” to Sundance
“It feels like a dream right now.”
TABATHA ZIMIGA: The fire scene. That was all genuine. I was this close to getting up and walking away before I even did it. I almost just left. But I love Kate so much, and I trust her and all the support I had from everybody that was around me. Even the cameramen were crying with me. They were pretty amazing people.
Exceptional. Everyone in the film is phenomenal, but Tabatha, you are the anchor of this movie and acting, at least from my limited perspective, seems to come so naturally to you. I was so incredibly impressed.
BEECROFT: I think my hardest scene to direct was that exact scene. Tabby’s only told that story out loud once in her whole life, and that was to me on the first day I met her. I was gonna ask her to do it again for a second time but with a crew. Tabby’s my closest friend, and it’s basically like asking, “Hey, can you just stab yourself in front of all these people?” Just knowing that she was brave enough to do this, and I know that she was doing it for me and trusting me, was the greatest gift. But it was very intense.
We’ve been talking about how this movie’s basically been your life for five years, and that’s a lot of yourself to pour into making a movie. What would you say would surprise the version of you first starting this, five years ago, the most about what the finished product turned out to be?
BEECROFT: Getting into Sundance. For my first feature to be directing Jennifer Ehle and Scoot McNairy. The fact that this movie that has a no-name producer with, originally, a no-name cast, was even made. So, everything. This is wild that this movie was made.
TABATHA ZIMIGA: We’re sitting here.
Tabatha, my last question is for you, and it’s to follow up on something we were given in our press notes. What does it mean to bring what I believe you call “The New West” to audiences at Sundance, and ultimately beyond?
TABATHA ZIMIGA: It means a lot. Honestly, it’s hard to wrap my head around it. It feels like a dream right now because this isn’t normal to us. It’s pretty badass. That’s what I think it is.
Special thanks to our 2025 partners at Sundance including presenting partner Rendezvous Capital and supporting partners Sommsation, The Wine Company, Hendrick’s Gin, neaū water, and Roxstar Entertainment.

East of Wall
- Release Date
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January 24, 2025
- Runtime
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97 Minutes
- Director
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Kate Beecroft
- Writers
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Kate Beecroft