Directed by Sarah Brennan Kolb, Good Ol Girl is an evocative look at three women working their way up the hierarchy of Texas cattle ranching, featuring self-selected ranchers Mandy Dauses and Martha Santos and one born somewhat recently into the profession, Sara Lemoine Knox. Framed by Joyce Gibson Roach–folklorist and author of The Cowgirls–the documentary introduces us to these three Texans living far from the urban sprawl of the state’s large cities, each doing essential work in an industry in evolution. A recent college graduate, Martha laments the changing landscape of hometown Lorado, where the new generations of ranchers decide have decided to cash out and sell their land to industry and retail. Martha, who aspires to get some hands-on experience and work her way into a position at an agricultural think tank, has a hard time getting her foot in the door.
Mandy is a Richmond, Virginia native in her late 30s and heads west inspired by a childhood love of horses. She works her way up as the manager of a Rush Creek Ranch where her responsibilities include the management of cattle from conception to sale, and sometimes all the way to her grill. The life in Kernes, Texas is professionally fulfilling if somewhat lonely as she hasn’t found a partner that shares her goals and ambitions. A long-term boyfriend is mentioned, however he remains entirely off-screen as Mandy candidly opens up to Kolb while she outlines her relationship goals.
Residing in the small town of Colman, Sara is a law school graduate with deep ties to the land. At age 12 she’s given acres to run cattle. Her grandfather we learn was a trail master with a vast holding that remains in the family, while her father becomes a somewhat defacto patriarch overseeing the holding. Sara is next in line and reluctantly balances law school with the responsibilities of ranching. This also arrives at a personal cost as she moves back in with her parents while getting her firm off the ground, serving former classmates back in her home town.
An intimate portrait of essential lives and practices, Kolb’s Good Ol Girl is a direct exploration of an industry in change. While Roach provides brief initial context on Texas life, the picture lets its well-chosen subjects, the next generation of ranching, speak for themselves as they discuss professional, personal, and family challenges in carrying on an important legacy. That legacy comes with responsibilities for Sara, who in her early 30s remains close to her family and support network. Mandy, who leaves her family in Virginia for life in Texas, is a lively presence on screen as she naturally opens up on a wide variety of topics from professional challenges to her desire to have someone care for her while retraining her rugged independence.
Good Ol Girl is a fascinating, illuminating study in various modes of femininity in an industry often associated with rugged masculinity. It’s no easy feat that that director Sarah Brennan Kolb is able to garner the trust and admiration of her subjects and their friends and families, finding humanity in moments of humor, sadness, and struggle while also documenting an iconically American way of life built around the exploration of the modern “cowgirl.” The picture may do what Martha hopes to achieve: bring together those who are working the land and actively involved in agriculture with those that don’t understand the several-year-process that got your perfectly-marbled USDA Prime steak to your plate.
Good Ol Girl was scheduled to premiere at SXSW.