Getting hit by lightening is equated with any act of exceeding rarity. Winning the lottery, dying in a plane crash, and getting a chance to punch out Perez Hilton, are all incidents whose frequency can be counted on one hand in terms of what a person experiences in a lifetime. Lightening is one of nature’s most powerful and awe-inspiring phenomena, as well as being the subject of many myths and urban legends. And despite the fact of the astronomical probability involved, about 2,000 people a year still get hit by lightening. This question of being singled out by an act of seemingly complete randomness is one of numerous metaphysical questions approached by director Jennifer Baichwal in Act of God.

Baichwal’s last film, Manufactured Landscapes, dealt with the as-large-as-life photography of Edward Burtynsky, which studies the affect of industrial human activity on the natural environment. Like that film, Act of God features some powerful imagery that’s truly moving and awe-inspiring. But where there’s an inherent sadness to Landscapes, Act of God is filled with a sense of wonder and curiosity. But there is some sadness too. Why do some people survive a lightening strike when others do not? How are these people affected by their experiences? And does getting hit by lightening change you in ways both basic and profound?

Seven people, each struck by lightening, are profiled, but don’t mistakes these stories as jocular, kind of amusing anecdotes about how these individuals were minding their own business when all of the sudden… There are no “Ben Franklin moments,” where inspiration hits along with the lightening. Also, no one gets superpowers from the lightening either; they don’t run as fast as the Flash or develop psychic powers. That’s not to say that there people aren’t changed; if there’s a recurring theme to the testimonials its that being hit changed them in subtly profound ways, a change in thinking, or some kind of re-awakening.

But it’s worth pointing out too that there’s no romanticism about being hit by lightening in Act of God. One survivor tells about how the one member of his camping trip violently died after being struck in spite of the fact that the other campers there survived. In Mexico, a mother mourns the loss of her child after they were both struck during a religious observance on a hill in open air. These are just some of the incredible stories that don’t necessarily lead to any inevitable truth and, if anything, simply pose more questions. Recurrent is this question of randomness versus selectivity .As one person in the film puts it: these incidents both reinforce the randomness of the universe and kind of disprove it at the same time.

Because of little nuggets like that, the film can be slightly inaccessible. It’s definitely an unconventional documentary to be sure, a kind of oral history/campfire story/therapy session for the people profiled. On that level I think the film works, but it also, I think, merely pays lip service to its other goal of exploring the scientific correlations. There are some amazing stories here, and perhaps the most wondrous collection of lightening photography to be found anywhere. It’s a heady movie to be sure, but it’s nourishing as well even though I can’t say that I thought twice about lightening after I left the movie theatre. Still, it’s a compelling documentary. The finest kind.