The Lebanese Rocket Society Page #4

"That was the day the Cedar 4

was launched" or "the Cedar 6"?

When they speak of it, no... it

doesn't ring a bell for most people.

As for our generation

they stare at us incredulous

as if this event, this document

was a piece of fiction

we've made up for fun.

It's like a secret history

buried in the collective imagination

a repressed thing

set apart and never mentioned

even in history books.

Perhaps because

most of the players in the project

have left Lebanon

like a big part

of the Armenian community.

Perhaps because most

of the archives have disappeared.

They reached us only thanks to one

man, Manoug, who saved everything

thousands of km from Lebanon.

Might this also be due

to the Lebanese civil wars

which took with them

swathes of memories of the past

or even before

a consequence of the June 1967 War

between Israeli and Arab armies.

The space program was halted

sometime after the war of June 1967.

The Arab defeat

and the loss of territories

like Jerusalem and the Golan heights

had a very significant

impact on the entire region.

Egyptian president

Abdel Nasser, stepped down

and then returned

under street pressure.

It's the end of a certain idea

of the pan-Arab project.

The shattering of a vision:

an alternative and modernist utopia

that promised to transform

our region and the world.

And what has changed the most

with the war of 1967

is the image we have of ourselves.

We were born in 1969

children of that

disenchanted generation

that felt the loss

of agency of its own fate.

It was harder to envision the future.

Dreaming was confiscated.

The history of the Lebanese space

project seems inconceivable today.

As if we were severed

from that possibility

as if we couldn't identify with it

forgetting it

repressing it from both

individual and collective memory.

Oblivion. The invisible.

We've already faced it.

It led us to make images in the

aftermath of the Lebanese civil wars.

Amnesia...

The interrogation about how History

is fabricated and written...

Which History is to be shared?

What remains

on the rocket launch sites in Dbayeh?

Monuments were raised along the

way by the armies that passed through

invading then withdrawing

from Lebanon.

Parts of history

are still tangible to us.

But no monument or commemorative

stone testifies to the rockets

with the following words:

"From this plateau in Dbayeh

Lebanon launched in 1961

the first rocket of the Arab world."

Neither stone nor monument?

You can see it on this image.

Can you see the tip on the photo?

Yes, but it's rather

like that in fact.

Anyhow, the proportions are good.

What about...

the welding of the ailerons?

What do you think about

the welding and finishing?

It's up to you.

You can decide to follow the photo.

Or you can try

to slightly improve things.

It's up to you.

The shape will be more like this.

I'd like Jana to tell me

what authorizations we need

to be allowed

to reproduce the rocket.

Even if we're just

building a mock one

which cannot be launched.

What authorizations

do we need to rebuild it?

To assemble it in our factory

put it on a truck

and get it out in the streets.

When you're building it

inside the factory

before it gets out

nothing can happen, right?

The guy who is now

producing the screw, the pivot

he's only working on separate pieces.

But when you begin to assemble?

You're afraid?

Of course, I am.

Not for the rocket.

I don't want them

to close my factory!

I don't care about the rocket!

The other problem is with the...

The countries around.

This is why they have to know

that it's a work of art.

You could be hiding behind it

preparing something.

I don't think

they'll really do anything.

No, but you'll

be surrounded by cameras

Smile! You're being filmed!

And your phone

will emit weird sounds...

That's reassuring!

Mr. Minister, for our project

we are reproducing a rocket

that we'll install

close to your office.

What authorizations should we have?

Can it be a problem?

Whom should we inform?

As you know, rockets as missiles

are not a simple thing in Lebanon.

We've had enough rockets

specially during war times.

But this is another kind of rocket.

For a weapon, you would

have needed authorizations

from the Ministries of Defense

of Finance and of Interior.

But as you're presenting it

we just need to inform

everyone in advance.

They need our help.

They'll write a letter to us

that we'll transmit to the Ministries

of Defense and Foreign Affairs

to the municipalities and the police.

And we'll synchronize everything.

With Miss Jana.

Now, what's going to happen?

We will film in Dbayeh.

Then, we'll put the rocket on a truck

and we'll move it through the streets

to Haigazian.

We'll have to see

how the army can cooperate.

Ok, now the army

services are informed.

But you'll have to decide

how you want to transport it.

This is the point.

Are they aware

that the rocket will be uncovered?

No. We were not clear about it.

Minister's office

You're afraid

of it being bombed? No...

We're not really afraid.

We want to do it in an artistic way.

But at the factory...

some of the people we were talking to

frightened us.

We need your advice, Mr. Minister.

Everything that is made public

becomes immediately less dangerous.

I don't think there

will be a problem.

We must communicate.

Yes, and you must give some details:

"We'll have a big truck...

We'll transport a rocket-shaped

sculpture from Dbayeh..."

We will appear on TV

write in newspapers, to explain it.

To avoid any possible ambiguity.

Any misunderstanding.

Any misunderstanding.

We now welcome the filmmakers

Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas

who are currently working

on a documentary film:

"The Lebanese Rocket Society".

I'm talking about

an 8-meter-rocket, it's not small.

We took some pictures of it

and decided to reproduce it.

General Security agreement

for the script.

Official copy

of General Security publications.

Text authorizing the transfer of

the rocket to Haigazian University.

Authorization from the Beirut

municipality for a documentary film.

Also from the Mount Lebanon

municipality to shoot a documentary.

Authorization from the town of Bourj

Hammoud to shoot a documentary film.

Authorization

from the Ministry of Defense.

Agreement about authorizations

from the Internal Security Forces.

It was a space project

meant for research.

They were all contributing

to a project

that was closely linked

to the modernity of the times.

Everyone will be surprised

many people won't remember.

Some won't know whether

it's about rockets or weapons

and will think that

you're talking about the war.

We consider that art and film

are places where things

can still happen today.

If someone comes and says:

"We're going to reproduce a rocket

and take it on a truck

from Dbayeh to Kantari"

people will laugh

and say it's impossible.

It's only in places

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