Miami Beach Mayor Drops Proposal to Evict O Cinema for Screening ‘No Other Land’
Miami Beach mayor Steven Meiner has withdrawn his proposal to terminate the lease of the arthouse theater O Cinema for screening “No Other Land” following a city council meeting on Wednesday. Per reporting in the Miami Herald, a majority of council members opposed the plan.
Meiner had publicly discouraged O Cinema from screening the Oscar-winning documentary about the Israel-Palestine Crisis, which he referred to in a March newsletter as “a false one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our City and residents.” (Though many have noted that the film was made by a collective of filmmakers of both Israeli and Palestinian descent.) When the theater did not comply, legislation was introduced last week to remove the independent theater from its longtime home and withdraw roughly $40,000 in grant funding from the institution.
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The move was swiftly criticized by activists from both the political realm and the world of independent film, all concerned about the First Amendment implications of a government telling an independent exhibitor what kinds of films it is allowed to program. In a statement provided to IndieWire following the withdrawal of the proposal, the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations celebrated the success of the pressure campaign.
“Public pressure works. CAIR, CAIR-Florida, and the ACLU — among others — applied public pressure on Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner to drop his failed proposal to censor our cherished First Amendment right to freedom of speech, which protects artistic expression. He first attempted to censor the screening of ‘No Other Land’ and later tried to terminate the lease and evict O Cinema. We welcome Mayor Meiner’s failure on both attempts,“ the chapter’s executive director, Imam Jaber, said. “Our organization remains steadfast in its commitment to safeguarding our community’s rights and will remain vigilant against the aggression and apparent pattern of discrimination that Mayor Meiner repeatedly exhibits in targeting Arab and Palestinian residents, business owners, and visitors.”
Despite winning the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, “No Other Land” still does not have a formal distribution deal in North America. The film continues to book theatrical engagements on an individual basis and became the highest-grossing Oscar-nominated documentary of the year.
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