Jack White admits he was apprehensive about having a documentary made on his band "The White Stripes."

The lead vocalist and guitarist, along with drummer Meg White, have been very private about their personal lives throughout the rock group's 12-year history, in particular about their relationship.

Inviting cameras in to film them behind the scenes was definitely a concern.

"Yes, we were apprehensive and you always should be apprehensive because those are the most special things about what you do and why you're alive and why you're creating together," says Jack, during a press conference for "The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights."

"To give it away too easily, it cheapens the more special moments so we were very careful with that and careful in the way we edited it as well -- because some things don't need to be said and some things don't need to be seen."

Filmed in the fall of 2007, shortly after the band released their sixth album "Icky Thump," the documentary takes a look at the intimate relationship between Jack and Meg both on and off stage as they tour across Canada for the first time.

When the Grammy Award-winning duo first emerged on the Detroit music scene in 1997, they told everyone they were brother and sister. But documents later surfaced indicating the two had in fact been married and were now divorced. The band rarely addresses the subject.

Jack say both he and Meg trusted director Emmett Malloy, who had previously done some of their music videos, which helped make them more at ease with the process.

"It gets better as the tour goes on, you start to forget that (the cameras) are there and that's when you get more special moments."

One of the most quiet and tender moments comes at the end of the film, which is a stark contrast to the band's usual frenetic stage show.

"It's a very powerful scene and hard for me to watch and hard for Meg to watch but I think there's so much about it I can't even tell you about, it's beautiful. What I like about it is it goes above and beyond anything above the band or the film itself."

"It was after a really emotional night and both the exhaustion of that tour ...," adds Malloy. "It was just one of those scenes where I think all of us, if you would've turned the camera on us, you would've probably seen tears in our eyes in the same way."

There are also plenty of humorous moments -- including making light of the fact that Jack does all of the talking and Meg hardly says a word.

Shot in black and white with spots of red, the look of the film is true to the band's signature colours. It wasn't that hard to achieve, considering the national colours of Canada are red and white, says Malloy.

"And also when the mayor of Yellowknife picks you up on the tarmac in a '51 Chevy, I gotta see that in black and white," says Jack, with a laugh.

With Canadian roots themselves (Jack says half of their family hails from Nova Scotia) the group made a point of stopping in every province and territory across the country during the tour.

As well as large-scale stadium shows, the band also did a free "secret show" in every city, which included a bowling alley in Saskatoon, Sask., a city bus in Winnipeg, Man., and a centre for Inuit elders in Iqualuit. Many of the people who saw them perform had never even heard of them.

"I live off of those moments. I live off the energy that comes out of playing in front of people who have no interest in normally seeing anything I do," says Jack.

All of the shows were spontaneous and fans had little or no notice.

But at the "one note show" in Halifax, N.S., where the group literally played one note, 1,200 fans showed up just to hear it.

"The idea of that moment was if we don't make it to the concert tonight, we can't say we didn't play every province and territory in Canada so that one note made it official."

Jack says he's been trying to get the show into the Guinness Book of World Records for the shortest concert of all time, but his submission was refused.

"(They said) it wasn't interesting enough," Jack says, to a roar of laughter, as he encouraged the media to spread the word.