Sampaga: He’s smiling.
The Portrait of
God (Script)
Yumol: The Portrait of God by Jarrett
Borkowski
No man shall see Me and live.
 Exodus 33:22
We now see the girl Mia’s hand
opening her phone and starting a
stopwatch. The remote lies
underneath the phone, and a
computer keyboard is seen as she
organizes a set of notecards. The
light of her open computer screen
brightens her face, along with the
projector in the background beaming
a picture that is now offscreen are
the only visible pieces of light.
Mia begins with a question
Cristobal: What does God look like?
Just take a moment and stare at it.
What do you see?
If the answer is nothing, if it just looks black
to you, don’t worry, that’s what I see
Too.
But that’s not what everyone sees.
The painting I’ve chosen for this project is
titled “Portrait of God”.
While most viewers see nothing, some
insist they see a person in the darkness.
One they can describe and draw out with
consistent details.
[Recordings]
Podutan: It’s a man, or, close to a man.
Sampaga: You know, wrinkled, skinny.
Melendez: Really skinny.
Podutan: He looks skinny.
Podutan: He’s grinning.
Melendez: His smiles down at us.
Podutan: Almost looks like the corners of
his mouth got smudged.
Sampaga: Almost like he’s wearing a
mask.
It’s—it’s too wide…
and his eyes…
Melendez: He’s looking down with love.
Podutan: His eyes are big.
Sampaga: They’re big.
They’ve got this glint in them.
Podutan: This speckle of light to them.
Honestly, it’s unsettling.
Sampaga: Of course it’s frightening, that
kind of power should be.
Podutan: I don’t like looking at it…
Sampaga: I don’t like it.
Melendez: It’s beautiful…
Cristobal: Maybe it’s just a trick of the light,
maybe they’re seeing something they want
to see.
But how are their descriptions so
consistent?
Maybe they really are having a religious
experience.
And…
Why does God appear to them and not us?
What does God look like?
………
Cristobal: I’m going to show you a painting,
or rather, a photograph of a painting.
Just take a moment to stare at it.
What do you see?
Yumol: The music starts to almost twinkle
in the background as she examines the
photo. In awe, she looks at it while touching
her cross. The light seems to be drained
from the room. No longer is she practicing a
presentation, she is lost in her thoughts and
imagination. Slowly, the figure appears on
the screen. It Is hunched over and
shriveled, almost skeletal in nature. The
eyes are dark and large, with a faint twinkle
in them. The grin is greatly unsettling. It is
so naturally… unnatural.
The projector light shines above Mia,
seeming to represent the halo portrayed in
many pieces of classical biblical art. At first,
Mia appears to be in awe, even delighted
when facing this being. But as the figure
becomes clear, her facial expression
changes from one of wonder to one of
concern and horror. She stumbles
backward, reaching for the remote to
control the projector screen. She raises the
screen. The white screen slowly raises; the
music builds. You can feel her breathing
deep in her chest, like a balloon about to
burst. The music builds until you hear the
clicking of the screen lock into place.
Through the raising of the screen, the being
remained, like the screen was a window
and the painting was in the room the entire
time. There is silence for a few seconds,
only for it to be broken by the noise the
being makes when it turns to look at Mia.
She jumps, startled, and rushes for the
door. She opens the door, quickly closing it
behind her. When she leaves the room, the
bright light of the hallway provides a false
sense of security. Unfortunately for her, the
light quickly vanishes upon the door being
closed.
The scene Is now of a dark void, barring the
spotlight shining down on Mia. She slowly
shuffles backward as sounds surround her.
She looks around panicked, hoping, or
maybe not, to find the creature lurking in
the shadows. Suddenly, a wheezing breath
is heard behind Mia as she freezes in
place. She slowly turns around at a
painfully slow pace. Mia is trying to see the
source of the wheezing, which is now
accompanied by slow walking. Mia
continues to shuffle backward, always
seeming to step out of the spotlight, yet it
continues to follow her.
The creature starts to take shape, as the
glint of its eyes is visible, its grey skin
catching some unseen light, making the
side of its head and shoulder visible for a
fraction of a second. Mia quickly turns
away, grabbing her cross and indistinctly
praying to a God that just so happens to be
in front of her. God is now fully visible,
though out of focus from the camera. A
ghostly hand reaches from the shadow,
turning Mia to face God. A hand pulls down
the mouth of the being, creating an
inhumanely large gape. A light starts to
shine from the mouth of God as Mia opens
her eyes. Her feelings of fear seem to be
washed away as the light grows brighter,
filling her eyes with light.
The scene switches back to Mia in the
room, with the projector light presenting the
halo around her again. Her face is lined
with tears from not blinking. She is gripping
her cross so hard that blood started
dripping down from her and onto her shirt.
The phone is shown, with the stopwatch still
running, just passing 3 hours and 3
minutes. The screen is now blank. We get
one last look at Mia, as she gives a slight
grin before the screen cuts to black.