Ballad Of Nana Doline - J.S. Ondara
New Squire director Charlotte Ginsborg brilliantly directed the latest J.S. Ondara music video under lockdown, for his new album release "Folk n’ Roll Vol. 1: Tales Of Isolation".
What The Current Blog says :
Kenyan-born Ondara has been making music out of Minneapolis since 2013 and in that time, he’s toured with the likes of Neil Young, the Lumineers, and Lindsey Buckingham. In 2019, he released his debut album Tales of America to critical acclaim and a Grammy nomination for best Americana album. After his tour with the Lumineers was cut short this March, Ondara wrote and recorded an 11-track acoustic album, Folk n’ Roll Vol 1: Tales of Isolation, which was released on May 29, 2020.
For this video to take shape, collaboration happened across the ocean. London-based filmmaker Charlotte Ginsborg wrote in an e-mail that she “responded to a call from Ondara and his team to pitch for one of the tracks on his new album, written and recorded under lockdown” and began creating the video soon after.
The video features an eclectic mix of people lip-syncing the words to Ondara’s ten-minute long epic “Ballad of Nana Doline,” the haunting closing track of Tales of Isolation. Creating this video came together as a product of quarantine circumstances.
What Charlotte says :
“I live in a housing co-operative in London, we had been having weekly sing-alongs during lockdown where we came on to our balconies and roof garden and sang to and with each other. This was the inspiration for the promo, which was filmed entirely in the co-op featuring its residents.”
“Usually I work with a bigger team but this time it was just me shooting with one assistant, working with natural light, but I think this helped the residents, who are all non-professional, to relax and open up in front of the camera,”
“Ondara’s lyrics throughout the album chimed with global experiences, the emotions that many of us are collectively experiencing. It felt like we had to capture the spirit of the moment, one of strength when facing adversity, a greater understanding of humanity and a sense of empathy.”