Jay Sun’s love of films began from pure boredom. As a child, he was often alone with his sister at home, with TV as their only form of entertainment. “We often searched for films to watch, and then we would just, you know, do a marathon thing from noon to night time.” The Sun siblings immersed themselves in what was readily available at the time: hours and hours of Hong Kong blockbusters (“those kind of Stephen Chow films”) that featured gambling and action as common themes.
As Sun got older, local entertainment options remained slim (the cinemas or shopping), and so he spent a lot of time in the cinema. Even so, he never considered going into film as a career and instead completed a degree in tourism and management. However, his passion led him to participate for three years in the IFFAM (the International Film Festival and Awards Macao) in various capacities such as in hospitality and programme teams, eventually becoming the assistant of the festival director. A few years later, he became the programmer for the Macao International Documentary Film Festival.
His love for independent films meant he spent a lot of time at Cinematheque Passion, a small indie cinema in picturesque Travessa da Paixão, where he also got to know the owner of the cinema quite well. One idle summer during the Covid years, he was invited by the owner to work as an intern at the cinema. He became the unofficial programmer and he curated a mini-LGBT film series, featuring three films from different parts of the world. “I just wanted to do something that I liked personally, back then. I wanted to introduce the gems, the beloved films that not many people know,” says Sun.
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The box office did well and something clicked then. Sun realised that one of his life goals was to create a space or platform where people can have discussions about queerness. A queer community exists in Macao, but the topic of queerness is rarely talked about and is often swept under the rug. Something that began as a personal interest grew into a mission to create an official celebration for the queer community.
Sun describes the tenacity of his mindset then: “I’m just going to do this. I’m going to make this happen. I’m going to let this exist at least.”
The Macao International Queer Film Festival ran for the first time in 2023 and Sun, intensely driven, paid for everything. He knew sponsorships and support for the first edition would be hard to come by. However, money was not Sun’s first concern then. “It was an urge. I’m a Virgo. I want to do everything perfectly.”
Now the festival is in its third year, and Sun has garnered financial support from many European consulates as well as the British and Canadian consulates. British cosmetics retailer Lush and various local companies are offering support as well. The scale of the festival has grown bigger, from twelve films in 2023 to nineteen films this year.
Finances are still a big challenge for the festival, however. There are still some films in this year’s festival that aren’t sponsored by any companies or consulates – so the festival has to bear the cost. There are also “not enough hands” – Sun’s festival team is mostly made up of friends and he is considering volunteer recruitment for the following year. Yet the same determination is there – and he is prepared to personally chip in, even if it isn’t sustainable. “I’m not a millionaire, you know,” he says, not without humour.
The inspiration for this year’s screenings, Tenderness Revolution, came from a period of reflection after the second edition of the film festival. Sun was somewhat disappointed by the outcome because it wasn’t as successful as the initial year, and spent much time contemplating on what he could have done better. He began thinking about the type of person he was.
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“I’m always, you know, a tender person. I don’t like to yell… from my observation, I think in this community, there are many people like us.” To Sun, the acts of creating and watching films are forms of tender revolution. By watching films “we can rethink and we can reflect” and have discussions that can strengthen a sense of community.
For this year’s film festival, Sun’s top pick for audiences would be the opening film, Bel Ami. The film is set in the Northeastern part of China, in the Heilongjiang region. Although the country of production is France, the director is from China and the film was shot there as well. The director has also been invited for post-screening talks. Without revealing the plot, Sun describes it as witty, funny and full of dark humour. “It has shown us something that we have never seen before, and it tells us how to love with courage”.
His personal favourite on the line-up would have to be Brokeback Mountain. It is the 20th anniversary for the film this year, and it was the first queer film that Sun had ever seen. He believes it “helped to shape the whole film industry” and raised awareness for queer people during the early 2000s. It is also the most popular film so far in terms of ticket sales.
This year’s festival takes place in June, during Pride month, and Sun intends for this to be a celebration. He describes the local queer community as “slow-burning” – low profile but passionate. “I hope to give them a space to float above water,” he says. “I also want to show the queer community that they’re not alone, that we have a platform for you to see what you want to see, to do what you want to do, and at least there’s a short period that you can enjoy being yourself. That’s enough.”
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Looking forward, Sun would like to organise an international queer short film competition as part of the festival, to encourage the sharing of more stories and personal revolutions that we have never seen before.
I was curious to know what Sun’s personal favourite film was, which was understandably a tough question, considering he lives and breathes cinema. He narrowed it down to Blue by Derek Jarman, an experimental film made by the queer artist as he reflects on his imminent death from AIDs. The screen remains blue throughout the film and the colour symbolises the deterioration in sight that Jarman experienced as his condition worsened.
For Sun, the spirit of the film – Jarman’s final work before he died – was symbolic of the unyielding spirit of the queer community, and to me, it embodies Sun’s spirit as well.
The 3rd Macao International Queer Film Festival runs from 30 May until 21 June. Click here for more details.
