Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. The Lebanese Rocket Society

Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige use their work to explore the production of knowledge, the rewriting of history and the construction of imaginaries, but also the forms of contemporary narrative, with reference to the experience of their own country but also others. With its mixture of the individual and the geographic, their investigative approach, involving questioning in the field, results in a singular aesthetic. These questions powerfully inform their cinematic work.

That is why, in agreement with Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Jeu de Paume has decided to present a selection of films in the auditorium that will give visitors the chance to discover or rediscover their work as filmmakers in the company of guests such as Etel Adnan and Antoine Thirion.

The Lebanese Rocket Society. The Strange Tale of the Lebanese Space Adventure (2013, 92′, Arabic, French subtitles)
How do you make a film about a subject of which there remains no trace, no memory, no archive?
This is the question which opens “The Lebanese Rocket Society”, which recalls the spatial adventures of a group of students at Beirut’s Haigazian University with their mathematics professor Manoug Manougian in the 1960s. The two filmmakers investigate this forgotten or suppressed episode in the past when these enthusiasts conceived and then tried to launch rockets.

Tuesday 20 September, 7 pm, screening of the film “The Lebanese Rocket Society. The Strange Tale of the Lebanese Space Adventure” (2013, 92′, Arabic, French subtitles) in the presence of the artists and critic and curator Clément Dirié.
Admission: 3 euros or free with that day’s exhibition ticket.