I returned from Syracuse last night after four days and nights of movies at the 2006 Cinefest, which took place in the lovely confines of the Liverpool Holiday Inn on Electronics Parkway, which sounds just about as exciting as it is. The weekend was a steady diet of movies starting at 9 am and ending after midnight, mixed with granola bars, pretzel sticks, and trail mix, spent on uncomfortable hotel ballroom chairs. But I had a great time, watched about 30 movies, and mixed in a screening of Dave Chappelle’s Block Party the first night and a trip back to Rochester to see Roger Ebert introduce Altman’s Three Women before returning for more movies in Syracuse.

The festival had a few highlights, like the early Frank Capra film Submarine and the rare import of the weekend, a German silent called Hintertreppe. But for the most part, the films were from the great forgotten reaches of Hollywood in the 1920s and 1930s, not necessarily B-pictures or bad films, but just films that have only barely stood the test of time. Actors I knew, like Claudette Colbert, Spencer Tracy, and Ronald Colman. Directors I knew, like King Vidor, Raoul Walsh, and the aforementioned Capra. But when it comes down to it, the films are just not all that amazing; if they were, we’d know them better, and they might exist on a format other than the third-generation 16mm print which we watched. I can imagine the Cinefest of 2075, when people are watching the lesser films of somebody like James Brooks or Penny Marshall, romantic comedies starring people you knew but that were just not all that amazing. I did enjoy the Leonard Maltin-hosted auction at the end of the festival, which featured some interesting films and memorabilia, but left me with this lesson: some things are worth no money. I was happy to have the opportunity to see films I’d never otherwise get a chance to see, but after four days, I was ready to see something in color and in CinemaScope, or even just to walk around, see the sun, eat a real meal.

Which is why, the day after tomorrow, I take off for another film festival, this one with some panel discussions and meetings mixed in, the Orphan Film Symposium in Columbia, South Carolina. I have a feeling the films will be more interesting and the chairs more comfortable, but we’ll see.