C’est la première saison qui ouvre le film : l’automne.

Elle course un chasseur d’éclairs, de son vrai nom Alex Hermant, identifié au dieu de la foudre syrien, Baal. Visionnaire, Baal projette 25 ans de ses archives vidéographiques sur la foudre, donne les clés scientifiques de ce phénomène fabuleux et dévastateur à la fois.

Alex Hermant : l’incarnation invisible de Baal, personnifié par ces éclairs majestueux.

Sans lui,  cette oeuvre n’existerait pas. Sans lui, on ne trouverait pas la lumière, on ne pourrait pas profiter de toutes ces fabuleuses photos. Pourtant, lui, l’incarnation de Baal, n’est jamais présent à l’écran, il est personnifié par ces éclairs, par cette foudre qu’il a réussi à apprivoiser avec son appareil photo.

Une page lui a été consacré sur le blog, où vous trouverez plus d’information sur son parcours et son travail de chasseur d’éclairs.This film is the fruit of a five-year exploration of lightning’s stomping grounds. Its script includes images, places, faces and commentary from people whose reality is this film’s subject. For two years, at the Hôtel Dieu Hospital in Paris, I had access to the medical records of major burn victims. From among hundreds of records, I located the paper trail of dozens of lightning survivors by intermediary of the late Dr. Elisabeth Gourbière, then one of the world’s few keraunopathologists (a specialist in lightning-related pathologies). I learned a great deal from her about the nature of lightning and the physical and psychological damage it causes.

I learned about its fearsome enchantments from Alex Hermant, lightning-hunter. He also put me in contact with three of the stricken. I then had to earn their trust, to get them to open up to me and tell their stories. Of the fifteen stricken whom I met with multiple times, only five consented. They had been waiting for the camera which would draw the story of this life-altering shock out of them. Indeed their lives had been turned upside down. For most of them, the lightning had left them with a profound handicap. They were destined to talk about it incessantly despite themselves, or never to mention it at all.

They had never been given adequate space to discuss it, to simply give their account.

It is the first season that opens the film: autumn.

It follows a lightning hunter, whose real name is Alex Hermant but who is personified by the Syrian God of lightning, Baal.

A visionary, Baal screens 25 years of his video archives about lightning, and gives the scientific keys to unlocking this fabulous yet devastating phenomenon.

Alex Hermant: the invisible incarnation of Baal, personified by these majestic bolts.

Without him, this work would not exist. Without him, we wouldn’t find light, we couldn’t avail ourselves of all these fabulous photos. However, he, the incarnation of Baal, never appears on screen. He is personified by the bolts, by the lightning that he has succeeded in taming with his camera.

A page of this blog has been devoted to him where you’ll find more information about his background and his work as a lightning hunter.