S.D. woman’s ranch becomes backdrop for female-focused, award-winning film

Which seems less likely: leaving a life that has centered on Los Angeles, New York City and London to live on a horse ranch in South Dakota, or opening your home and life to a filmmaker who will turn your story into a big-screen saga?

Kate Beecroft and Tabatha Zimiga had no idea when they met almost five years ago that the chance encounter would drastically change both their lives.

What came from that meeting — the tangible part — is a film named “East of Wall.” It will have its world theatrical premiere Aug. 12 at the State Theatre in Sioux Falls. When it showed earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, it won an audience award. Former South Dakota resident and filmmaker Andrew Kightlinger describes it as “a gorgeous true story about South Dakota women, resilience and family on a horse-training ranch on the open plains.”

It’s the intangible, the part you can’t see sitting in a movie theater, that will affect Beecroft and Zimiga, two women in their 30s from drastically different backgrounds, for years, for decades, forever.

“Within an hour of meeting Kate, I just felt safe with Kate always,” Zimiga said from her home near Wall. “I don’t know how to explain it. It was kindred.”

“Tabatha is my best friend; we speak every day,” Beecroft said, speaking from Los Angeles. “They just became a part of me, and I became a part of them. I never really wanted to leave.”

The “they” Beecroft referred to is Zimiga, her three children, Chevy, 20, Porshia, 18, and Stetson, 6, and the teenage girls who seek refuge on the Zimiga ranch, plus the occasional teenage boy. There are no legal ties between Zimiga and her unofficial family-in-love. Instead, she refers to her home as a haven.

“There are a lot of girls who call me Mom,” she said. “I end up with kids, and some of them really need to be here. They need somebody.”

Tattooed multiple times, half of her hair shaved off, with piercing yet kind eyes, Zimiga stars as the hero in “East of Wall” and her own life.

“Most people would never assume I ride horses for a living when they meet me the first time. ‘Why are you putting on makeup when you live on a ranch and just ride horses?’ Well, you never know if you’re going to ride the ambulance.”

Zimiga grew up in the hills near Edgemont. She was unfamiliar with the open prairie, but after meeting the man who became Stetson’s dad while horse trading, Zimiga ended up loving the Badlands. The couple married and settled on his ranch, which covers about 1,200 acres.

After he died by suicide, Zimiga remained on the ranch but took on a different role with no hesitation.

“I just got more determined. I went from doing a lot more things in the house to barely being in the house and running the tractor and, for lack of a better word, figuring it the f**k out,” she said.

Zimiga and her family settled into a seasonal rhythm that enthralled Beecroft when she encountered it. Rodeo is prominent in the summer, while fall and spring are the times to tend to and brand the cattle. Ranch work takes precedence in the winter, but when the family can fit it in, they travel to indoor arenas for barrel racing.

Beecroft first encountered the cowboy way of life when she was traveling around the Midwest with a cinematographer. Beecroft had directed several music video shorts and was looking for small stories to put on film. She had no intention of making a feature.

Rather than follow a map, Beecroft decided to go where the wind took her through Nebraska. Still, she didn’t expect it would blow her to a wrong turn across the state line near Oelrichs. Determined not to waste time, she filmed a woman she had just met. Then, the woman’s daughter called and changed Beecroft’s life.

“She said, if you want an amazing story, head east of Wall and find a woman named Tabatha,” Beecroft said. “We turned around … and Tabatha came out of her trailer. It was so modern against this old haunting landscape, and there were all these amazing-looking, cool, badass teenagers. Tabby said, are you here to see some real cowgirl sh**? And we spent a wild few days filming, filming, filming.”

When Beecroft returned to Los Angeles, she had to decide what to do next. That decision led her back to Wall, where she spent about three years, without a camera, learning “a new way of life, what makes them tick, everything from calving season, branding, rodeos, sale barns and moving cattle.

“At the end of year three, I got enough money to make the film,” Beecroft said.

Filming took place over 26 days. Beecroft brought in three professional actors, including Jennifer Ehle (“Pride and Prejudice”) and Scoot McNairy (“A Complete Unknown”), but 97 percent of the cast in what has been described as a “docu-fiction feature” came from the region.

That includes Zimiga’s daughter, Porshia.

“I know that Porshia really wants to act, and I think she’s found a hidden talent that wouldn’t have existed without trying something new,” Zimiga said of her daughter, who will graduate from high school in May 2026. “Porshia is good at it. And I watched all the girls mature. They’re now such beautiful young ladies.”

As for her own acting ability, Zimiga said she discovered that it was fairly easy to slip into a semi-imaginary version of herself. She attributes that in part to her varied background and surviving trauma. What seemed odd was taking orders from others.

“It is something weird having people telling you what to do, what to wear,” Zimiga said. “But we kind of became a family with the crew.”

Zimiga believes that “East of Wall” will help keep what she calls “the cowboy way alive. It’s a dying breed, and I’d really like to keep that in everybody’s present.” That’s one reason she agreed to be part of Beecroft’s dream.

For Beecroft, who wrote and directed “East of Wall,” the movie comes out at a time when Westerns are seeing “an amazing resurgence” but are not being told through the voices of women.

“When I go to a branding or moving cattle or anything, I’m seeing the women working just as hard as men, branding cattle with a baby on their hip,” she said. “For me, that’s really important to make a very modern Western through the voices of girls who have lived it and are living it.”

Zimiga, Porshia and the other unexpected actors are the women’s faces that Beecroft has wanted to see on the screen for a long time. During the months that she taught the teenagers and Zimiga to act, they offered her a double trade-off. Not only did she learn ranch chores, but she discovered they were incredible storytellers.

“That’s what I love about South Dakota — everyone has a great story to tell,” Beecroft said. “I’d have them tell me stories, and if they could hold my attention, they could hold your attention on screen.”

Beecroft spent the three years living east of Wall attending rodeos and basketball games with the girls. She learned to read the ranch-life authenticity in their hands and hips, she said. Their professionalism blew her away once they realized the importance of sticking to a filming schedule.

“I have a bunch of cowgirls, who are feral in the best way and kind of naughty,” Beecroft said. “Tabby still has to move cattle on her day off, and the girls still want to go to rodeos on their day off. Other than that, they showed up every day with incredible performances and making choices. I wrote the script using stories they’ve shared with me about the past or actual scenes that I’ve witnessed, and we threw some fiction in there.”

People who have seen “East of Wall” assume that Beecroft grew up in South Dakota since a prairie spirit and knowledge weaves through every scene.

“I do feel like I’m from South Dakota; that’s where all my friends are now. My heart is there,” Beecroft said. “I want to live there, and in a strange way, I felt more myself than I ever have before. Without the distractions of the cities, you can find out who are you. You have time to sit and talk and be in nature with people and also do manual labor. You’re working with these people. I became like addicted to them; I just became so in love with this family.”

As an actor, Beecroft studied Shakespeare in London. She thinks the playwright would be intrigued by the real people who populate “East of Wall.” Her background also includes a passion for the intense loves and hatreds that fill Greek mythology. Those myths telling tales of larger-than-life people also could find a place in the South Dakota Badlands, she said.

The cast will travel east for the Aug. 12 premiere and take part in a question-and-answer session. Beecroft admitted to a little worry, wondering if South Dakotans will support her film.

Maren Engel, arts coordinator for the city of Sioux Falls, thinks people will realize what an opportunity this is.

“It’s rare for our state to be featured so prominently — and successfully — in film and difficult to get production companies like Sony Picture Classics to invest in focusing efforts on a market like South Dakota,” she said.

Sony, which picked up the independent film for distribution after it won the Audience Award in the NEXT program at Sundance, will release it nationwide Aug. 15 and has promised to show it in every theater in South Dakota.

That pledge was important to Beecroft.

“I want to make films that are like a mirror,” she said. “It’s important that the heartland gets to see this one.”

Zimiga has watched the film four times, traveling to New York City for some pre-release publicity. One viewing came with her 92-year-old grandmother, who watched it via a link to her television.

“That was a pretty awesome moment,” Zimiga said. “I got to share it with her. I was worried she wouldn’t get to see it.”

Zimiga doesn’t know if or how much her life will change after “East of Wall” is released.

“I think of it as what will be will be,” she said. “I never get my hopes up too high. I don’t see my life really changing too much. I’ll always do things with horses, I’ll have stray kids showing up, wanting to do something with horses. It will feel a little different if people start to approach me.”

‘East of Wall’

“East of Wall,” a film shot in South Dakota with largely local actors, will have its national premiere Aug. 12 at the State Theatre. The show is sold out. You can watch the movie’s trailer here. It will open nationwide Aug. 15. Other showings at the State are Aug. 14-17 and Aug. 22-24. Currently, it has a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.