| Abstract
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I argue that of the many ways to examine Lebanese film, the best is through sect. Traditional categories and methods of textual analysis such as class, race, gender, psychoanalysis and semiotics can be used to read film, but sect can, as a new category of analysis, provide a far more fruitful understanding of Lebanese film. Lebanon is a country in which primary identity is determined by sect; therefore, I argue, sect ought to play a major role in cultural production, particularly in an art form as rich as film. My work seeks to explain why Lebanese of different sects—Maronite, Sunni, Shiite, Greek Orthodox, Druze—made the films they did, and how their films reflect a sectarian experience. This paper also looks at the history of Lebanese film, at production, exhibition and the creation of a cinematic culture, including film magazines and cinema dubs as well as censorship. Emphasis is on the golden age of cinema in Lebanon, from the late 1950s to the beginning of the Civil War in 1975. Films made during the war and in the post-war period are also examined. They reveal no less Man the films during the golden age, sect. As a new analytical tool, sect provides a different and fuller understanding of Lebanese film.
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