Filmmakers sign open letter slamming Miami Beach mayor's legal action over Palestinian-Israeli documentary
DUBAI: International filmmakers — including Oscar winners Michael Moore, Laura Poitras, Ezra Edelman and Alex Gibney — have signed an open letter to the city of Miami Beach after Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner sought to shut down the city's nonprofit art house cinema, O Cinema, following screenings of the Oscar-winning documentary 'No Other Land.'
'No Other Land' is a collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers that follows activist Adra as he documents the destruction of his hometown, which Israeli soldiers are tearing down to use as a military training zone, at the southern edge of the West Bank.
On March 13, Miami Beach Mayor Meiner called the film 'a false one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our city and residents.' He introduced legislation to terminate the lease for the O Cinema, a city-owned property. Meiner is also asking the city to 'immediately discontinue' approximately $40,000 in city grant funding.
On Monday, 752 members of the international filmmaking community signed an open letter slamming what they said was 'an attack on freedom of expression, the right of artists to tell their stories, and a violation of the First Amendment.'
Alfred Spellman, who co-founded Miami-based media studio Rakontur, signed the letter and spoke to Variety about his motivations for doing so.
'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 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.'
'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.'
Miami Beach commissioners will vote on Meiner's O Cinema proposal on Wednesday.
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