British Columbia — “If you could imagine fire as a creature or a force, how would you describe it?” asked filmmakers Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper while filming their documentary Incandescence. Fire is like a pig, someone answered, because it eats everything in sight; fire is like a grizzly bear, another responded, running to stay alive. These unconventional characterizations of fire weren’t the only thing that surprised Ami and Ripper while shooting their film. While fire is often described as a force of unrelenting destruction, they learned fire can also breathe life into the forest if treated with respect.