
“If You’re in the Room, Your Voice Matters”: Producer Shannon Moss on East of Wall

Screening in the 2025 Sundance Film Festival’s NEXT section, East of Wall is a fictionalized version of the life of Tabatha Zamiga—who runs a ranch for wayward teenagers—and her family after the sudden death of her husband. The film stars its subjects as themselves and was written by debutant writer-director Kate Beecroft while she spent time with the family after a chance meeting on a road trip.
Also debuting on East of Wall is producer Shannon Moss. Below, Moss talks about some of the challenges of shooting the film, the industry’s risk-averse nature and the mentors who helped her make it to where she is today.
See all responses to our annual Sundance first-time producer interviews here.
Filmmaker: How did you connect with this filmmaker and wind up producing the film?
Moss: I met our wonderful writer-director Kate Beecroft two years or so before production started. I was the creative director on a photoshoot where she and her fiancé were talent. She and I got to talking and she told me about this project she was working on—how she’d met this family in South Dakota by chance on a road trip with her trusted cinematographer (Austin Shelton); how she’d been living with them, studying them, learning from them, and ultimately teaching them how to act—all in service of telling their story on film, a story of unresolved grief and female resilience in a very marginalized corner of the American West. I left that conversation feeling like “damn… that’s the sort of thing I want to be a part of.”
A year after that, we finally grabbed that drink we’d been meaning to grab. I asked her how the project was going, and she sent me the script that came out of her three years living with Tabby and Porshia and the whole family. It was perfect. I cried multiple times, and then immediately called our head of films (Ryan Hawkins, who is an EP on East of Wall) at the commercial production company where I was working at the time (Stadium Creative Group). They were starting to chart their path towards narratives and feature films, so I brought the script to them, and everyone loved it. We then became involved in the process of finding funding and attaching ourselves to the project. And so! A-year-and-a-half after leaving that first conversation with Kate hoping to do something like that, it was an incredible feeling to be doing just that—to officially be on board.
Filmmaker: How long a process was it to produce the film, and if you could break it into stages, periods of time, what were they? Can you also discuss how the financing came together and how long a process that was?
Moss: As mentioned, I (and Stadium Creative Group) came onto the project a bit later in the process. The entirety of the project’s lifespan was about five years, and we came in about 9 months before production. Ryan Hawkins, an incredible EP/producer and former Head of Films at Stadium, did a lot of work securing funding and pushing the project out to his network. Kate and Austin had put together a teaser trailer taken from footage that they shot over many visits to South Dakota. It was an incredible stroke of brilliance to put that together, allowing investors to visualize the project and really see what they’re investing in. The script and teaser landed on Al Engemann’s desk, one of our eventual EPs, and I think Al really believed in it. He came on board, and we were able to secure the last piece of funding that the film needed in order to go into production.
Filmmaker: Did you have important or impactful mentors, or support from organizations, that were instrumental in your development as a producer?
Moss: Absolutely. Stadium Creative Group is the sole reason I’m here. Years ago, Samy Mosher (founder of Stadium) took a chance and hired me to lead a department when I’d never had a job in the industry. Never. It’s wild to say. I had relevant experience and skills, of course, but his seeing potential in me and giving me that opportunity was a pivotal moment in my life. It opened up the door for me and allowed me to be in the room with incredible producers, EPs, directors—all of whom I was able to learn from. But the greatest gift was being given a seat at the table with all those experts and brilliant thinkers without a real sense of hierarchy despite my relative inexperience at the time. I was learning from them, but my opinion and views were equally valued. It was a true gift, and allowed me to forge my own path with confidence.
One of the most impactful mentors I had at Stadium was Ryan Hawkins. He taught me everything I needed to know to be in a position to take on a project like this, alongside him and the rest of the team. His generosity in affording me this opportunity, believing in me to take on something I’d never done, and responding to every text and call when I had questions small and large…. it was truly unmatched. There’s always so much to learn, but I know a little more about what I’m doing now because of him.
And then there’s Lila Yacoub. Having my first producing credit alongside someone with the credits that she has—Lady Bird, Eighth Grade, C’mon C’mon, some of my favorite indie films of the past decade— was inconceivable to me at any point before it actually happened. Her knowledge, her taste, her demeanor, it’s all been a gift to watch her work and be a trusted partner alongside her.
Filmmaker: What was the most difficult aspect of producing this film?
Moss: Well… we had minors, non-professional actors, horses, dogs, goats and stunts. Sometimes all in the same scene. Coordinating all of those aspects was certainly difficult at times. We were also filming at Tabby’s 3000 acre ranch, and sometimes wrangling the kids who were strewn out across the property was more difficult than wrangling the horses! They were amazing though, and I’m so proud of them.
Filmmaker: What single element of the film do you take the greatest amount of pride in, or maybe were just most excited by, as a producer?
Moss: The cast. This family was living their lives in a small town in South Dakota when Kate and Austin stumbled upon them. They had never acted. And I would imagine the prospect of this sort of thing happening to them was beyond imagination.
I’ve never met anyone quite like them. They are all authentic, beautiful, courageous people who are unapologetically and uniquely themselves—in ways that can be jarring and intimidating at times, but so deeply inspiring. They are who they are. And the dedication they had to telling this story and ensuring that they were doing everything they could to do their story justice was remarkable. The way they studied their lines. The way they prepared for each scene. The way they showed up day in and day out. Yes, they’re playing themselves, but this is a scripted narrative. There are only a few scenes that are improvised. They had to memorize lines, they had to act. And I was blown away time and again watching how talented they are, holding their own with actors like Scoot McNairy and Jennifer Ehle. I’m just so glad they were discovered.
Filmmaker: What surprised you or was unexpected when it came to the producing of the film?
Moss: Post-production. This being my first film, I don’t think I was prepared for iterations after iterations and how hard it can be to maintain an objective view of the film when you’ve watched so many versions of it, know the script and the story so well, and have a backlog of every scene and every take running through your head. There were moments when I’d watch a cut and think, “okay this makes total sense to me, but is it because I’m filling in gaps with the knowledge that I independently have of the cast and the story? Will someone who has no idea who Tabby is understand this and feel the emotional core here?” At a certain point, it takes a lot to be able to watch the film and see it as a whole rather than it being a puzzle with moveable pieces.
Filmmaker: What are the challenges facing new producers entering the business right now at this unique historical moment? And what could or should change about the film business to make producing a more sustainable practice?
Moss: I think Cord Jefferson said it best in his acceptance speech last year. Instead of executives investing in one $200 million dollar film, why not invest in 20 $10 million movies, or 50 $4 million movies? The industry is risk-averse and believes that the one $200 million film is a better bet. But what would the industry look like if we did take a chance on those 50 $4 million films? How much more diverse, how much more rich, how much more creatively inspiring? East of Wall was a risk. This was our director’s first feature film. This was our cinematographer’s first feature film. This was my first feature film. But the story and the vision were there, and I feel immensely grateful that we had incredible investors and partners who took a chance on a risky proposition: a film with non-professional actors telling their life story on screen.
I know there are so many stories out there, so many talented filmmakers, writers, producers, who are giving everything they have to try to get their projects off the ground. I would love to exist in an industry where the creative vision and substance of the project is as important as the financial bottom line, and where there are more people taking risks on first time filmmakers.
Filmmaker: Finally, what advice would you pass on to a future new producers preparing to embark on their first production?
Speak up. If you’re in the room, your voice matters.