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Join us for this month’s Arab Film Series program presenting the feature-length documentary The Lebanese Rocket Society directed by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, which unravels the strange tale of the Lebanese space adventure that had been forgotten from personal and collective memory. The film is accompanied by a discussion with the artists.


The program is available for a limited time of 48 hours from August 28 to 29.

RSVP now, tickets are limited!


Note: This program is available for audiences in the United States and will be available from August 28 at 12:00 am to August 29 at 11:59 pm EDT

The Lebanese Rocket Society: The strange tale of the Lebanese Space adventure


In the early ’60s, during the cold war and the apex of Pan Arabism, a group of utopian students and researchers enters the race to space and create the Lebanese Rocket Society. Sometimes, dreams can overtake a tormented history…





Filmmakers Bio:

Filmmakers and artists, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige question the fabrication of images and representations, the construction of imaginaries, and the writing of history. Their works create thematic and formal links between photography, video, performance, installation, sculpture, and cinema, being documentary or fiction film.


The artists are known for their long-term research based on personal or political documents, with particular interests in the traces of the invisible and the absent, histories kept secret such as the disappearances during the Lebanese Civil War, a forgotten space project from the 1960s, the strange consequences of Internet scams and spams or the geological and archaeological undergrounds of cities. Among their major artworks, Circle of Confusion (1997), Lasting Images (2003), The Lebanese Rocket Society (2011), SCAMS (2014), I stared at Beauty So Much (2016) and Unconformities (2017), showcased at the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris) and awarded the prestigious Marcel Duchamp Prize.

  • Year
    2013
  • Runtime
    92 minutes
  • Country
    Lebanon, Qatar, France
  • Director
    Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige
  • Executive Producer
    Jana Wehbe and Christian Eid
  • Cast
    Manoug Manougian, John Markarian, General Youssef Wehbé, Harry Koundakjian, Joseph Sfeir, Hampar Karageozian, Paul Haidostian, Assaad Jradi, Zafer Azar, Le Ministre Ziad Baroud, Le Ministre Tarek Mitri Fouad Matta, Jana Wehbé
  • Cinematographer
    Jeanne Lapoirie, Rachelle Aoun
  • Editor
    Tina Baz
  • Animator
    Ghassan Halwani
  • Sound Design
    Rana Eid
  • Music
    Nadim Mishlawi, Additional music Scrambled Eggs ,Discipline