Lebanese Rocket Society. 2011. Lebanon. Directed by Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige. 92 min.
Hadjithomas and Joreige's film explores a little-known part of Lebanese history—and the idea of a different future. During the early- to mid-1960s, Armenian Haigazian University professor Manoug Manougian introduced rocketry to his students’ scientific studies. As the sophistication of their rocket projects grew, so did the interest of the Lebanese army and, eventually, foreign governments. A trove of archival photographs, interviews with the utopian Manoughian, and the commissioning of a spectacular commemorative rocket evoke the zeitgeist of the period.