ABOUT - peterconheim

PERMANENCIA VOLUNTARIA – Rescuing Mexico's "Genre" Film History

Tepoztlan, Mexico's Permanencia Voluntaria Film Archive works hand in hand with Cinema Preservation Alliance in their efforts to preserve the endangered "Genre" films of Mexico – the beloved classics of so-called "popular cinema" which have been consistently disregarded by the country's film establishment, and doomed to vanish.

Drawing upon the vast archive of original elements held by organization director Viviana Garcia Besné, which derives from her family's own long-time production company, the Calderons, PV has – with partners such as Academy Film Archive, Nicolas Winding Refn and UCLA Film and Television Archive – worked with Peter Conheim and CPA to restore LA MUJER MURCIELAGO/THE BAT WOMAN (1968), the first sound film made in Mexico, LA LLORONA/THE WEEPING WOMAN (1933), the introductory films of Mexican wrestling legend El Santo (SANTO CONTRA HOMBRES INFERNALES and SANTO CONTRA CEREBRO DEL MAL, both 1959) and more.

OBEDIENCE (1965) - The Notorious Milgram Study, Restored

Psychologist Stanley Milgram's "obedience to authority" experiments at Yale University in the early 1960s, inspired in large part by the Nuremberg trials and the writings of Hannah Arendt, were – and remain – among the most provocative and controversial behavioral studies ever conducted. Men and women of varying backgrounds who answered an innocuous-sounding newspaper ad took part in an experiment to determine how far they would go when instructed by a faceless authority figure in the laboratory to administer painful shocks to a helpless victim. The "victim" was an actor, and the shocks were fake, but the subjects weren't. What followed was filmed by Milgram – who also aspired to be an avant-garde filmmaker – leading to a 35 minute documentary which was not intended to be shown to the general public, but as a teaching tool.

Cinema Preservation Alliance set out to preserve OBEDIENCE in 2015, only to discover that all original elements on the film were lost. A years-long search eventually resulted in the surprise discovery of two partial, nearly pristine projection prints in a bedroom closet of the Milgram estate, leading to this new 4K restoration.

The film will begin select screenings in the United States, followed by discussions in each city where it shows, in mid-2020.

CINEMA PRESERVATION ALLIANCE at byNWR.com

Peter Conheim and Cinema Preservation Alliance have been the lead "Restorationist" team behind all the film and media content on director Nicolas Winding Refn's free-of-charge online "culture site" and streaming platform, http://www.byNWR.com. Since late 2016, Peter Conheim has overseen the full restoration of 27 feature films and a host of short films in 2K and 4K digital, in most cases from original film elements, both with partner labs and in-house via CPA.

Additionally, all films' optical or magnetic soundtracks were fully restored and remastered for release directly by Peter Conheim at Red Channels studio.

Among the major restorations completed were the total reconstruction of J.L. Anderson and Franklin Miller's lost 1967 American neo-realist masterpiece, SPRING NIGHT SUMMER NIGHT, a painstaking rescue of the severely degraded camera negative of Curtis Harrington's NIGHT TIDE (1961), top-to-bottom reconstructions of the earliest film works by musicians and artists Devo, The Residents, Richard Gaikowski and others from the 1970s punk rock explosion, and the first films starring Mexican wrestling legend, El Santo (in collaboration with Permanencia Voluntaria; see below).

Restorations Completed for byNWR.com to Date:
THE NEST OF THE CUCKOO BIRDS (1965)
NIGHT TIDE (1961)
SPRING NIGHT, SUMMER NIGHT (1967)
SHANTY TRAMP (1967)
HOT THRILLS AND WARM CHILLS (1967)
SATAN IN HIGH HEELS (1962)
WILD GUITAR (1963)
EEGAH (1962) (collaboration with Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Film Detective)
CHAINED GIRLS (1965)
MAIDENS OF FETISH STREET (1966)
HOUSE ON BARE MOUNTAIN (1962)
COTTONPICKIN’ CHICKENPICKERS (1967)
IF FOOTMEN TIRE YOU, WHAT WILL HORSES DO? (1971)
THE BURNING HELL (1974)
THE BELIEVER'S HEAVEN (1977)
SUDDENLY THE LIGHT (1978)
HOT BLOODED WOMAN (1965)
ORGY OF THE DEAD (1965)
SHE-MAN: A STORY OF FIXATION (1965)
OLGA'S HOUSE OF SHAME (1964)
WALK THE WALK (1970)
MURDER IN MISSISSIPPI (1965)
GUILTY BYSTANDER (1951)
HOUSE OF SEVEN BELLES (1979)
ONE SHOCKING MOMENT (1965)
STARK FEAR (1962)
EMERALD CITIES (1983)
EARS, EYES AND THROATS: Restored Classic and Lost Punk Films 1976-1982 (compilation)

DEAF/PUNK (1979) Dir. Richard Gaikowski

Restored 2019 by Cinema Preservation Alliance

Select Completed Works and Projects, 2003 – 2019

2003:
VALUE ADDED CINEMA (feature documentary) – Co-Produced and Directed with Steve Seid, a collage film made entirely from product placement sequences from Hollywood feature films, made for Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley.

2004:
Re-opened and operated the Guild Cinema in Albuquerque, New Mexico (with Keif Henley) as successful first-run art house and repertory movie theater until 2009. Henley continues the successful operation of the Cinema to this day.

2005:
BRAND IMPRESSIONS: GUY MADDIN AND THE FILM COMPANY (short film) – Produced and Directed, depicting the Canadian filmmaker at work on his feature film, Brand Upon the Brain.

2012-2016
Served as President of the Board of Directors of Canyon Cinema, San Francisco, California. Helped transition the venerable artist-run film distribution company from a for-profit to 501(c)3 non-profit corporation.

2016
Engineered and co-produced studio album by MX-80 Sound, So Funny (Feeding Tube Records)

2017
Led successful fundraising campaign to rescue and rehabilitate Permanencia Voluntaria film archive in Tepoztlan, Mexico after the devastating earthquake of September, 2017, in conjunction with Academy Film Archive and Archivists Without Borders.

2017-2018
NUESTRO TIEMPO/OUR TIME (feature film) – Directed by Carlos Reygadas – Various post-production consultations, ADR, and English narration rewrites