Documentary Filmmakers Blast Proposal to Shut Down Miami Beach's O Cinema: ‘An Attack on Freedom of Expression'
Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner's March 13 proposal to shut down the city's nonprofit art house cinema, O Cinema, following screenings of the Oscar-winning documentary 'No Other Land' is not sitting well with the members of the doc community.
On Monday, 752 members of the international filmmaking community including doc feature Oscar winners Michael Moore, Laura Poitras, Ezra Edelman and Alex Gibney signed an open letter to the city of Miami Beach that stated, in part, that the Mayor's threat to shut down the O Cinema is 'an attack on freedom of expression, the right of artists to tell their stories, and a violation of the First Amendment.'
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Alfred Spellman, who co-founded Rakontur with Billy Corben in 2000, also signed the letter. The Miami Beach native has produced over 15 docus, including 'From Russia With Lev' and 'Cocaine Cowboys.'
'This is a case that is definitional of what the First Amendment is supposed to protect against, which is government encroachment on speech,' Spellman told Variety. 'The Mayor is trying to claim that the content of the documentary is anti-semitic, but that doesn't matter. So long as it is not legally obscene, the mayor has no business interfering with what the O Cinema chooses to program.'
The story of the resistance of Palestinian activists against forced displacement and settler expansion in the West Bank community of Masafer Yatta, 'No Other Land' debuted at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Documentary Award and Panorama Dokumente Audience Award. Directed by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists: Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Basel Adra, it went on to play widely on the fest circuit, winning a slew of other awards prior to the Oscar.
Meiner characterized the film as 'a false one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our city and residents' and has introduced legislation to terminate the lease for the O Cinema, a city-owned property. In addition to asking Miami Beach commissioners to end the theater's lease, Meiner is also asking the city to 'immediately discontinue' approximately $40,000 in city grant funding.
'The problem here is that there is an attempt to shift the discussion to the merits or the demerits of the film and the filmmaking and the issues surrounding it,' said Spellman. 'If you are a committed free speech advocate, none of that matters.'
Together Films founder and CEO Sarah Mosses also signed the open letter sent to Meiner and Miami Beach commissioners.
'The censorship we are seeing in Miami is what we usually see in other regions led by dictators,' says Mosses, who is selling the 2024 abortion doc 'Zurawski V Texas' to international markets. 'We should be very concerned with this rhetoric.'
Miami Beach Commissioner Tanya Katzoff Bhatt told Variety that she was 'flabbergasted' by Meiner's attempt to censor O Cinema.
'I'm not at all surprised that we are getting the outpouring of very distressed citizens, both residents of Miami Beach and beyond, saying basically, what the holy hell are you doing?,' said Bhatt. 'So, I'm also thrilled that we are getting the response we are getting because censorship is never the right answer to challenging issues.'
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and the Community Justice Project are representing O Cinema. On Tuesday, Vivian Marthell, the CEO of O Cinema, held a press conference in Miami Beach with representatives from the ACLU, the Miami Light Project, and the Community Justice Project to discuss the First Amendment concerns and O Cinema.
'The Mayor's threats were patently unconstitutional, but they sparked a global conversation about the importance of arts in our civic life and the importance of free expression to our democratic ideals, Florida ACLU legal director Daniel Tilley told members of the media.
Though 'No Other Land' was sold by Autlook to dozens of foreign territories — including the United Kingdom and France — it has struggled to find a home in both the U.S., where it has been self-released by the filmmakers. The doc had its U.S. theatrical release on Feb. 2 on a single screen and grossed $26,000. Since then, the film has expanded to 120 U.S.-based screens and grossed over $1.2 million.
O Cinema is set to screen 'No Other Land' again on Wednesday and Thursday. Both screenings are sold out.
'This has come as a complete shock and surprise to us,' O Cinema co-founder and chair of the board of directors Kareem Tabsch told Variety. 'In the organization's nearly 15 years, we have never heard from an elected official who has questioned or challenged a film we have shown, and we've operated in multiple municipalities.'
Tabsch said that while there has been 'a modest uptick' in theater donations, if Meiner's resolution passes, the O Cinema will 'become homeless.'
'I have been able to lead the city forward, with the support of my colleagues, in so many meaningful ways this last year,' said Bhatt. 'We have increased grants to all kinds of cultural institutions to (help them) continue doing the work that they do because we recognize how important it is to our schools, to our community, to our tourism, and to the narrative of what Miami Beach is all about. To have it undone based on one person's opinion is heartbreaking to me. It's devastating to what we're trying to build.'
At the Oscar ceremony earlier this month, 'No Other Land' directors received a standing ovation when they were announced as the winner of the best documentary feature category.
Co-director Abraham, an Israeli journalist, spoke about the power of the film being a collaboration between Israelis and Palestinians. 'Together, our voices are stronger,' he said. 'We see each other — the destruction of Gaza and its people, which must end, the Israeli hostages, brutally taken in the crime of Oct. 7, which must be freed.'
Meiner was elected to the nonpartisan mayoral position in November 2023. Miami Beach commissioners will vote on Meiner's O Cinema proposal on Wednesday. To overturn Meiner's resolution, there needs to be a four-person majority.
If commissioners vote to overturn O Cinema's lease, Bhatt said that she will be very concerned.
'If it happens here in Miami Beach, what does it mean for the rest of the country?'
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