ESPLANADE (2019) a film by David Gamble & Jonathan Freilich
ESPLANADE is a 2019 narrative film created by photographer/ cinematographer David Gamble and musician/composer Jonathan Freilich. Shot in black-and-white, it is a meditative journey down Esplanade Avenue, an important 18th-century portage route in New Orleans, Louisiana, running northwest from the Mississippi River to the entrance to City Park.
Convention persists that sound and image conform to the other with a decision made beforehand as to which is primary. This tends to preclude the possibility of conceiving the whole sound/picture field as one unified art object at conception. The difficulties are clear since there is usually a separate technical skill in the rendering of each form; picture producer and sound producer.
In this project we are moving in the direction of two fields collaborating to create a unity from the outset - through flexible dialogue along the way - in which the audio and the visual are transformed by each other. The collaborative process replaces the obvious morphing and non-linear editing systems prevalent in the digital technologies in contemporary production.
The image and sound comes directly from New Orleans, but in the way the subject is treated, the familiarity is revealed to have many normally unobserved scenes and organic abstractions. The citizens’ naturalness going about their daily lives is exposed in a disjointed harmony with the monolithic points of interest along the street and mundane urbanity is seen freshly even by those familiar with the geography.
David Gamble
is a multidisciplinary artist from London based in New Orleans. His body of work consists of paintings, works on paper, and photographs. Gamble worked as one of the foremost international editorial photographers for publications such as The Observer, the Independent, LIFE, Fortune, the New Yorker, the Sunday Times, and more.
Over his decades-long career, Gamble has photographed such illustrious figures as Stephen Hawking and the Dalai Lama, several portraits of which reside in the National Portrait Gallery in London and the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
In 1987, Gamble won the Kodak Award for Best Photographer in Europe as well as a World Press Photo Award in 1988 for his portrait of Stephen Hawking, which was used as the notable cover of Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time.” In 1989 he was given The American Photography Award. Gamble is currently expanding his painting series, Silence, which aims at shining light at victims of abuse.
Gamble is working on a new film collaboration with Jonathan Freilich based on a short operetta, James Joyce’s Letters to Nora to be completed in 2020.
Jonathan Freilich
…guitarist/Composer, is a Co-founder of the New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars (NOKAS) and founder of Naked On The Floor (quintet) and The Naked Orchestra (18-24 piece orchestra) which play Freilich's original compositions exclusively and play regularly in New Orleans. Performing with New Orleans' greatest musicians including Kermit Ruffins, Michael Ward and The Reward, and Sun Ra trumpeter, Michael Ray, Freilich has appeared at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 24 times as well as headlining the Berlin Jazz Festival with NOKAS. He has appeared with Sam Rivers, Burton Greene, Marshall Allen, The Wild Magnolias and backed Robbie Robertson.
His music has been featured in films and TV shows (Andy Richter conquers the Universe and The Dukes of Hazzard) as well as in commercials for Southwest Airlines and Mercedes.
In 2016 he produced and arranged an album, NOLA? for legendary Basque artist, Fermin Muguruza that led to a European run for the Basque New Orleans Orchestra. Other arranging credits include Hal Wilner and U2’s tribute to T. Rex and GRAMMY Award winner, Peter Stampfel’s 100 songs of the 20th century project.
In 2019, he completed two operas performed in New Orleans, a hyper-collaborative project with writer, Bernard Pearce, The Coronation and Darling, please do not be offended at what I wrote based on the letters of James Joyce to Nora Barnacle.