The legendary Sundance Film Festival is getting ready for its last year in Park City before moving to Boulder, Colorado. Savvy producers Jackie Nico and Ayeshah Zakiya Rose are submitting their debut television series The Ballad of the Bush Mare to be part of this historic season. Honoring the late Hollywood legend Robert Redford and Sundance founder, this project pays homage to the values he advocated for- supporting independent film and filmmakers, Utah locally filmed projects, contributing to film culture.
PARK CITY, Utah, Oct. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The legendary Sundance Film Festival is getting ready for its last year in Park City before moving to Boulder, Colorado. Savvy producers Jackie Nico and Ayeshah Zakiya Rose are submitting their debut television series The Ballad of the Bush Mare to be part of this historic season. Honoring the late Hollywood legend Robert Redford and Sundance founder, this project pays homage to the values he advocated for- supporting independent film and filmmakers, Utah locally filmed projects, contributing to film culture.
Originally created and written by South-East Asian Australian filmmaker Ayeshah Zakiya Rose, this project which Jackie Nico co-directed, produced and starred in is a bold, genre defying Western that was filmed between various locations in Utah, USA and New South Wales, Australia. Starring Rose as Maiwya Khan, charts reflections of Ayeshah's lived experiences as a mixed-race woman with immigrant parents in rural Queensland Australia, against a westernised backdrop.
Set in the 1880's, The Ballad of the Bush Mare chronicles the life of Maiwya, a young Afghan woman compelled to flee Afghanistan after witnessing her father's murder in a mosque massacre during the height of British colonial rule. Maiwya and her mother are abducted and transported by ship to Thursday Island in Australia. Upon arrival they are brutally separated and forced into servitude. With only a blurred memory of her mother's blue eyes, almost twenty years later, Maiwyas embarks on an expedition of a lifetime to find her mother. Yet, faced with the adversities and oppression of woman Maiwya goes rogue, transforming into the beloved yet feared bushranger known as the "Bush Mare."
Her journey encompasses searching for her identity, justice, and her mother's blue-grey eyes, reclaims the female point of view on the non-traditional hero's journey and questions the myths of the Western genre.
The international partnership:
Nico is an actor, producer, and director from Chicago who now lives in Park City. Recognised for her work in Kevin Costner's Horizon: An American Saga- Chapter 2, which premiered at the Venice and Santa Barbara Film Festivals. Nico has a can do, go getter attitude that transformed this ambitious concept to actualize into a wondrous reality. The partnership thrives on strict wholesome personal and professional values that transfer into their work together giving the filmmaking process a unique spin.
Rose is known for her appearances in Underbelly, Angel of Mine, and Home and Away Australia's iconic series'. She has also made a name for herself as a forceful director with award-winning short films, including Me Too, Shoulda,The Girlfriend Project and recently ELÓ. Rose is a strong supporter of intersectional feminism, cultural representation on and off the screen. She continues to explore subjects that align with interpersonal relationships, displacement, identity and culture, using her voice to aid matters of the heart.
A New, Strong Voice at Sundance
The Ballad of the Bush Mare mixes tough stories with history and folklore to take audiences on the adventure of the unspoken stories of outback Australia, through the never done before female central storyline in a Western. The Ballad of the Bush Mare, is a love story to the land, incorporating poetry, Australian landscapes, bush ballads- a style of poetry and folk storytelling that depicts the life, character and scenery of the Australian bush which offers a similar scene of the vast mountainous backdrop of Utah. Honoring the land, this partnership has devoted the series to merge both worlds into one, disrupting the process of traditional filmmaking.
Media Contact
Jackie Nico, Jnico Productions LLC, 1 847-691-0331, [email protected]
SOURCE Jackie Nico
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