Was there a specific incident or experience that inspired you to investigate the metaphysical aspects of lightning?

It started with James O'Reilly who was struck as a young man in South River, Ontario, and wrote a monologue about it, called Act of God. His description of the event, in which one boy was killed, and the aftermath, was very moving. Then I was talking to Michael Ondaatje about it and he said: you MUST talk to my friend Paul Auster, who was struck as a teenager. So these two writers got me thinking about lightning as an arena for examining the relationship between chance and meaning.

I assume there's footage of lightning in your film. How did you manage to capture it? What are the tricks to knowing the probability of lightning occurring and technically being ready to film it?

We carried our camera around with us for 2 years, everywhere we went, and whenever there was a storm, we filmed it. Of course it is very difficult to capture something so fleeting. But the experience of being in storms, with lightning and thunder all around us, was incredible, as well as scary. We also had Elizabeth Klinck— one of the best visual researchers in the world— finding archival lightning footage for us.

Has making the film, talking to those who have been struck, piqued your curiosity about being struck? Do you on some level wish to experience it?

I know how devastating it can be, so I don't want to experience it. But the power and force of the phenomenon— bolts can carry millions of volts of electricity— is humbling, and makes you aware of your own relative insignificance in the universe.

Is there a commonality amongst people who have been struck?

For almost everyone, it is impossible not to grapple with questions of fate, randomness and meaning— the "why me? " question. Everyone answers it differently, but they all ask variations of the same question.

It seems like you need to travel a lot to make your films, often working with subjects who don't speak English and to whom you're a real outsider. How do you gain their trust? How do you communicate your intentions and desires to them?

It is about finding real empathy— almost an exchange of vulnerability between you and the subject. Without that relationship, and the ethical parameters that go along with it, I don't think we could film.

Describe the process of researching your films – how do you develop your ideas? Do you do much fact-finding filming before embarking on official "production".

We spend a great deal of time - one or two years - researching. Then we try to forget everything before we start shooting, and let it inform in a more organic way. I never write a script: it is impossible to script reality, obviously. But that doesn't mean shooting arbitrarily and being unprepared, either.