Some stories can only quietly take root in the dark - until a beam of light pushes the door open, tearing a crack in the silence. The 3rd Macao International Queer Film Festival, themed “Tenderness·Revolution,” tells a silent uprising through films. While mainstream lenses still shy away from our truths, we gather the warmth left behind by the camera - restitching the kisses that were cut, the tears that were muted, the hugs that were pixelated, the desires deemed “forbidden,” frame by frame, back into the narrative of our lives. With tenderness, we hold the camera: close-ups capture the pulse beneath the skin, long takes linger on the weight of silence, and montages piece together lives that resist easy definitions. And the revolution hides between every cut, for when the projector light flickers on, something always begins to take root in the eyes of the audience. Every frame is a tender revolution. From 2023 to 2025, we’ve arrived at our third edition. This time, there’s no need for voice-over, we speak for ourselves.

It’s already 2025. Before we knew it, the 21st century has already entered its 25th year. Remember how we made it from the 20th century? Why do those who weren’t born yet at the time obsess over everything from Y2K? Do you remember (or know) the millennium bug, ICQ and 56K? The internet is undoubtedly the most influential technology of recent times. “At the time I wrote this film the internet was just starting to become popularised. It was before anybody really had a full idea of what effect it was going to have on our daily lives.” Keeping his finger on the pulse, Japanese director Kurosawa Kiyoshi carves a spiritual totem of early 21st century mankind with Pulse (2001), foreseeing how the internet would erode the hearts of modern humans. “Maybe it was the effect that the turn of the millennium had on me. The more modern and developed our society is, the sense of alienation between people grows stronger and stronger.” Chinese Fifth Generation filmmaker Tian Zhuangzhuang had a similar sentiment, but he chose to take a different route and remake a 1948 Chinese classic into Springtime in a Small Town (2002), getting away from the hustle and bustle and returning to the mysterious realm of the old days. As the new century approached, world cinema saw many new developments. The early 1990s saw the rise of many American independent filmmakers. Among them, New Queer Cinema pioneer Gregg Araki made the Teen Apocalypse Trilogy. Its middle chapter The Doom Generation (1995) taught Gen X to get high and has become regarded as a cult classic; in Germany, a group of graduates from the German Film and Television Academy Berlin – later labelled the Berlin School – quietly made their way into the spotlight of world cinema. Among them, Christian Petzold began the “Ghosts” trilogy with The State I am In (2000), outlining German history with new cinematic aesthetics; the Dogme 95 Movement may have begun in Denmark, but it managed to cross the Atlantic Ocean and inspired the then-unknown Sean Baker to make Take Out (2004) with his creative partner Shih-Ching Tsou for an extremely low budget, laying the foundation for his vérité cinematic style. Little did anyone know that he would achieve unrivaled success 20 years later by sweeping both Cannes and the Oscars for the same film. Just as people were looking forward to better days in a new century, conflicts that had been culminating for years exploded: The 9/11 attacks, the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the Iraq War...Many filmmakers chose to use their creative works to respond to the chaos. Palestinian director Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention (2002) satirises the Israel-Palestinian issue with absurd deadpan humour. Watching it again as the war continues to rage on in Gaza, the film still feels as on point as ever; made when he was over 90 years old, Portuguese maestro Manoel de Oliveira’s A Talking Picture (2003) uses a cruise ship that sailed in 2001 to speculate on the history of human civilisation and question the source of chaos all around the world; Mexican director Carlos Reygadas’s Battle in Heaven (2005) uses shocking images and sounds to paint a portrait of post-millennium Mexico City and dig deep into its class problems. It’s an interesting companion piece to the depiction of migrant workers in Take Out. With these eight films, we look back at the once-in-a-hundred-year “Turn of the Century”.

The Met: Live in HD presents high-definition screenings of opera performances in the Metropolitan Opera House, one of the best opera houses in the world. Its dazzling productions are filmed by 14 different cameras in high-definition format and transmitted to cinemas across the world. The Metropolitan Opera pioneered live HD movie-theatre simulcasts in 2006. The acclaimed performances now reach over 2,000 venues in 70 countries and receive rave reviews. The impact of the live performance remains spectacular on screen. For The Met: Live in HD 2024-25 season, Emperor Cinemas brings the Hong Kong premieres of Puccini’s Tosca, one of Puccini’s most well-known masterpieces, this season featuring extraordinary soprano Lise Davidsen as the iconic title role with David McVicar’s thrilling production. Another premiere is Verdi’s Aida, with this season's grand new production bringing audiences inside the towering pyramids and gilded tombs of ancient Egypt with varied stage presentations and an assembly of singers at the height of their powers. More classic titles include Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded, Beethoven’s Fidelio, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Strauss's Salome, and Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Now available at Entertainment Building and Emperor Cinemas Plus+ (THE SOUTHSIDE).