Miami Beach Mayor Caves, Drops Plan To Shutter Indie Theater For Showing Oscar Winner ‘No Other Land'
The mayor of Miami Beach has scuttled his proposal to shut down an indie cinema for showing the Oscar-winning Israeli-Palestinian documentary No Other Land.
Mayor Steven Meiner withdrew his plan during a lively meeting of the Miami Beach City Commission today. He had issued a draft resolution last week calling for his city to terminate a lease agreement with O Cinema, located at Old City Hall, a property owned by the city.
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Doc Talk Podcast On Miami Beach Move To Punish Theater Showing 'No Other Land', Plus Field Report From Thessaloniki Doc Festival
Oscar Winners & Hundreds Of Others Decry Threat To Close Miami Beach Theater For Showing 'No Other Land': 'Attack On Freedom Of Expression & First Amendment'
Beethoven's 'Fidelio' Live From The Met Sings On A Quiet Weekend, With 'October 8', 'No Other Land' - Specialty Box Office
The resolution would have eliminated about $40,000 in grants provided by Miami Beach to the nonprofit that runs the arthouse. O Cinema began screening No Other Land on March 7, five days after it won Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards.
The move comes two days after more than 600 people including several Oscar winners signed an open letter to the city decrying the theater's potential shutdown as 'an attack on freedom of expression, the right of artists to tell their stories, and a violation of the First Amendment.'
The film, directed by a collective of four Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, provides a ground-level view of life for Palestinian residents of the rural Masafer Yatta area of the occupied West Bank who live under an expulsion order by the Israel Defense Forces, which wants the land for a military training zone. The documentary shows IDF forces knocking down Palestinian homes and schools pursuant to the expulsion order, as well as violent attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians.
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