A Conversation With God
Tsai Ming-liang

TAIWAN, 2001, video, 30'

The original subject intended for this film was a spiritual medium who was unbelievably accurate. Tsai Ming-liang jumped on his 50cc motorbike, equipped with a DV camera ready to shoot her, to see whether the god would speak to his camera. But on the way, he was caught in a traffic jam of people gathered at another god’s festival. A man in a trance, flashy karaoke girls on stage, a power black-out. During his diversion, the camera discovers fish and underground passages.

“I decided to use the most basic and simple way of filming. This changed the way I saw things. Filming the underground passage, I didn’t consider it to be filming but rather using the camera as my eyes.”