Lighter Than Air

Forty years ago a group of young men and women moved in with friends in Switzerland and subsequently to France in order to build an airship. With this plan the hippie commune wanted not only to escape the boredom of student life, but also to make a contribution towards the development of alternative technologies. After a very promising start and developing their own materials, the time came for the first attempt at flight, which ended in disaster with the airship exploding. After this setback the commune drifted apart; part of the group emigrated to the USA, where even NASA employees were persuaded tojoin their project. But with this the time for dreaming came to an end. The group scattered to the four winds. But the story of the airship is not over. Thirty years later this documentary film looks at the search for a utopian world from the present day point of view.