Notes of Necessity World Premiere of Music Documentary at the Phoenix Art Museum

Notes of Necessity

World Premiere of Music Documentary at the Phoenix Art Museum

Written by: Julie Stone | Photography by: Courtesy of ZU33 Pictures

Which songs tell the story of life on earth? When the Golden Record was sent into space on the Voyager mission in 1977, American astronaut Carl Sagan gathered songs from all around the world to communicate to other life forms what earth was. Beethoven’s “String Quartet No. 13,” “Night Chant” by Navajo Indians and the “Pygmy Girls’ Initiation Song” from Zaire are on the list of the 27 tracks featured on the record, which recently left our solar system, in the hopes that some being will discover it.

This intergalactic mission laid the foundation for the music documentary, The Heart is a Drum Machine, directed by Chris Pomerenke, a Phoenix native, and premiering at the Phoenix Art Museum on February 6. In production for nearly two years by ZU33 Pictures, the film sets to answer the questions: what relationship do humans have with music? From elaborate symphonies to simply singing to oneself, do we have to have music? Is it embedded in humans?

“We know why you do your laundry, we know why you put food in your mouth, we know why you put clothes on,” says Pomerenke. “But why do you hit play?”

Pomerenke, along with producer Ryan Page, who is also from Phoenix, set to explore the human relationship with music in “politically, emotionally, spiritually, racially, sexually” ways. Interviewing more than 100 musicians, artists and even a cardiologist and neurologist, the documentary features the young, old, famous, not-so-well known and all others in between. “Everyone from Elijah Wood to John Frusciante from Red Hot Chili Peppers to George Clinton,” says Page. “We tried to cast this as wide a net as possible so it’s not like an indie rock documentary; we have jazz cats and blues men, all across the board.”

One of the areas of interest is the role music plays in healthcare, as the filmmakers spoke to Milford Graves, a jazz musician who is also a tenured teacher at Bennington College and studies music therapy. Paying close attention to the sounds of a heart, Graves has diagnosed illnesses just from his comprehension of the sounds of beats. Pomerenke says, “If you’re a cardiologist and not a drummer, or at least a musician, you might not really be listening.”

This idea that music is ingrained in humans is shared by many of the people interviewed in the documentary. And even though the Golden Recorder originator Carl Sagan passed in 1996, his widow Ann Druyan expresses that he would have felt similar. The documentary closes with Druyan telling what her husband’s final thoughts were about the Golden Record. We won’t spoil the ending for anyone, suffice it to say, though, it’s very touching.

But why did ZU33 choose Phoenix to debut a documentary that would seem to fit in so well in Hollywood among record labels, musicians and celebrities? “We’re from Phoenix,” says Pomerenke. “We had an offer to do it in LA, we had an offer to do it in New York,” Page says. “We thought, let’s give a gift to Phoenix.”

This gift can be viewed for the first time in the galaxy on February 6 at the Phoenix Art Museum.

Purchase tickets for the premiere at www.phxart.org