"The frisson between his [Keenan] well-crafted personal mystique and the way the film presents

him as a dedicated new winemaker learning his craft is intriguing."

– Los Angeles Times

 

"It's a behind-the-curtain peek at a notoriously publicity-shy celebrity, but more than that, it's a

 fascinating look at pioneers braving the Arizona elements to create drinkable art."

 – San Diego CityBeat

 

Maynard James Keenan, internationally known as the front man for Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer, is one of music’s most mysterious figures.  A multi-million selling artist, little is known about the reclusive rock star who often dresses in costume and rarely gives interviews.  In the mid-1990's, on a whim, Keenan left Los Angeles and moved to an Arizona ghost town (population 300).  A wine enthusiast, he began to envision a world class wine region on the Verde Valley's craggy slopes and with wine mentor Eric Glomski (former David Bruce winemaker and current owner of the award-winning Page Springs Cellars), Keenan began the long road to bringing credibility and notoriety to Caduceus and Arizona Stronghold Vineyards amidst wine industry prejudice and the harsh Arizona terrain. Blood Into Wine takes viewers into the struggles and triumphs with a unique blend of comedy and master storytelling.

 

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

Let it be known.

 

We did not set out to make a film that told a rich story about hard working and passionate winemakers living in touch with the land. We had no creative intuition or desire to include an eclectic and unlikely cast that would add an unexpected level of dynamics and complexities to the main characters struggles and rewards. Nor did we have any idea it would turn out so beautiful, entertaining and thoughtful.

 

Ryan Page (Co-Director Blood into Wine) and I are fathers of young children and we both know first hand the financial pressures of raising kids in a recession. So coming off of our previous film, The Heart is a Drum Machine, we looked around to try and spot a sure fire money maker. And we did. Or at least we thought we did in a rock star named Frank Beard.

 

You might recognize Frank Beard as the drummer from that lil ol’ band from Texas, ZZ Top. But he’s also the proud inventor of a pretty fantastic new product: The Boogie-Woogie No-Drip Squeegee©

 

When Ryan and I stumbled upon this rockstar-turned-inventor idea, we immediately knew we had a winner! So we contacted our Producing partners Chris “Topper” McDaniel and Jason Stall and asked them to start crunching the numbers. What kind of money could we stand to make by doing a glorified infomercial for the ZZ Top/Squeegee demographic?

 

Much to our disappointment, the numbers that came back weren’t very encouraging. Our Producers did the projections and they had concerns that the squeegee buying demographic might not be the same demographic that would buy a documentary.

 

Needless to say, we were heartbroken. And so was Frank.

 

However, the research did come back with some interesting findings. It turns out that folks who enjoy documentary films tend to be educated and sophisticated. And folks like that tend to be wine drinkers.

 

Eureka!

 

So you guessed it. Ryan and I started looking around and wouldn’t you know it that right in our very own backyard was a rock star making wine! We hoped we had a winning story in Maynard James Keenan (front man for the bands Tool, A Perfect Circle, Puscifer) was making wine with his mentor Eric Glomski (of Page Springs Cellars) in Northern, Arizona.

 

Thus, Blood into Wine was born. We hope you all like the film.

 

Yours truly,

 

Christopher Pomerenke

Co-Director, Blood into Wine

 

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

RYAN PAGE – Director/Producer

Ryan Page is a film producer/director based in Arizona. Page's films have been shown at the London Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Sundance Film Festival, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Tokyo's Shibuya Cinema Society, Los Angeles Grand Performances Series, BorDocs Foro Documental Tijuana, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Cleveland Museum of Art, Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Miami Art Central, Salina Art Center, IAF Videoart Festival Tijuana, São Paulo International Short Film Festival, as well as theaters across the globe. 

 

Page's recently completed music documentary The Heart Is A Drum Machine is set for March 2010 release (Lightyear Entertainment) and he is currently in post-production on Blood Into Wine, a film about Tool/A Perfect Circle front man Maynard James Keenan and the wine he is making in the ghost town of Jerome, Arizona. The widely anticipated documentary premieres in February 2010. 

 

Page's film Moog (2004), a feature-length documentary on synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog, was released theatrically across the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan. Stephen Holden of the New York Times dubs Moog a "compelling documentary portrait" of a "provocative, thoughtful and deeply sympathetic figure" and the London Daily Telegraph calls it "brilliantly inspiring on many levels."

 

Moog was an Official Selection at numerous international film festivals including the Rotterdam International Film Festival (Netherlands 2005), Madrid International Film Festival (Spain 2005), Adelaide International Film Festival (Australia 2005), Naples Sintesi Festival (Italy 2005), Belo Horizonte INDIE Film Festival (Brazil 2005), Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czech Republic 2004), Sheffield International Film Festival (UK 2004), Dublin Electronic Arts Festival (Ireland 2004), Asheville Film Festival (North Carolina 2004), Bergen Ekko Festival (Norway 2004), and Barcelona In-Edit Film Festival (Spain 2004) where the film took home top honors at the Documentary Awards Ceremony. Moog is distributed by Plexifilm and currently airs on Showtime.

 

His previous film Frontier Life (2002) is a documentary feature that explores the strangely inventive world of Tijuana, Mexico. Filmmaker Magazine calls the film a "fresh... quick-paced, smartly edited doc that boasts an innovative score."Frontier Life has screened in theaters across the U.S., Canada, Spain, Argentina and Mexico with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Oregon Arts Council, Centro Cultural Tijuana, and El Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes.

 

Frontier Life was an Official Selection at the Mexico City International Film Festival (Mexico 2005), ARCO Madrid International Festival of Contemporary Art (Spain 2005), Barcelona Festival of Contemporary Mexican Art (Spain 2005), Sound Unseen Film & Music Festival (Minneapolis, MN 2003), Northwest Film Forum (Seattle, WA 2003), D.U.M.B.O. Arts Center Art Under the Bridge Festival (Brooklyn, NY 2003), San Antonio Cinefestival (New Mexico 2003), and Calgary International Film Festival (Canada 2002). Frontier Life is distributed by Third World Newsreel.

 

Page also Produced the Moog film soundtrack, released on Hollywood Records, and co-produced actor Crispin Glover's bizzaro underground feature What Is It?, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005. 

 

CHRISTOPHER POMERENKE – Director/Producer

Christopher Pomerenke is a musician and filmmaker based in Phoenix, AZ. Pomerenke made his documentary directorial debut with The Heart Is a Drum Machine, which uses NASA's Golden Record as a device to talk about, "What is music". Pomerenke interviewed over one hundred artists and academics for the film including John Frusciante, Elijah Wood, Juliette Lewis, Isaac Brock, George Clinton and many more. 

 

Pomerenke recently Co-Directed Blood Into Wine, the widely anticipated documentary that shares the story of international platinum recording artist Maynard James Keenan and his quest to bring the wine industry to Northern Arizona and in specific the ghost town of  Jerome, AZ (population 375). The film features Milla Jovovich, Patton Oswalt and Bob Odenkirk.

 

As a musician Pomerenke has toured the world many times over sharing the stage with the likes of Modest Mouse, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Ween, Chester Bennington (Linkin Park) Frank Black (Pixies), Spoon and many more. Pomerenke’s latest album was recorded by Aaron Mullin of Sonic Youth and released by Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World. 

  

Pomerenke worked in marketing and programming for CBS Radio and has directed numerous music videos and advertisements for radio and television including HGTV and Phoenix Art Museum. Pomerenke is also a sitting member of the Advisory Committee for Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.