Miami Beach commission defers deciding fate of O Cinema over screenings of "No Other Land"
The Miami Beach commission has deferred deciding the fate of O Cinema on South Beach after it angered the city's mayor with screenings of the controversial, award-winning documentary No Other Land.
During their meeting on Wednesday, Mayor Steven Meiner withdrew his resolution that would have terminated the theater's lease with the city. The commission then tabled second resolution by the mayor concerning the matter to a later date.
Before the mayor withdrew initial resolution, several people directed comments at him during the public comment section.
"This is not about balance. It is about controlling the narrative for a political purpose, which is quite literally the definition of propaganda," one man said.
After the meeting, Meiner said he was just trying to make a point.
"There are Israeli filmmakers that are boycotted throughout the world. So again, free speech, but what about those artists that are not being heard. There seems to be a level of 'oh free speech, for you, for me, but not for them.' That's what I am trying to bring to the forefront that it applies to everybody, free speech, whether you are Israeli, Jewish, not Jewish, free speech," he said.
Moviegoers defend free speech
Outside the theater, moviegoers expressed their support for the film's continued screenings.
"When I heard that the theater was threatened to be shut down, I was kind of like, that's not very American," said Marcello Galvan. "Free speech, stuff like that. So if anything, doing that kind of brought more attention to the movie."
Valentina Maldonado echoed that sentiment, emphasizing the importance of artistic expression. "Art challenges our ideas about the world, and that's a good thing," she said.
Charlotte Libov, who is Jewish, insisted on her right to watch the film.
"You wave the First Amendment at me, you're waving a flag in front of a bull," she said. "We have a right to see it for ourselves in Miami Beach and in the United States."
First Amendment rights at issue
The documentary, made by a Palestinian-Israeli team, shows a group of Palestinian villages' interaction with the Israeli military in Masafer Yatta in the West Bank.
It has received international acclaim and was recently awarded the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Every screening at O Cinema, at its theater in the Old Miami Beach City Hall, has been sold out.
Meiner has called the movie antisemitic and a "…one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people…"
"The ability to document history and share diverse perspectives is a fundamental First Amendment right—one that cannot be erased or suppressed simply because those in power disapprove of a particular message," O Cinema said in a statement.
Meiner originally put a resolution on Wednesday's agenda that would have directed the city manager to terminate the movie theater's lease with the city and immediately discontinue any grant funding.
After receiving backlash from civil rights groups, community leaders and city resident about his alleged intrusion on First Amendment rights, Meiner put the second resolution on the agenda that would encourage "Living Arts Trust, Inc. d/b/a O Cinema to strive to showcase films that highlight a fair and balanced viewpoint of the current war between the state of Israel and the groups Hamas and Hezbollah to ensure that the viewpoint of Jewish people and the state of Israel is fully and accurately presented."
O Cinema said the second resolution was still an attack on their freedom of speech rights and unacceptable.
"Mayor Meiner's brazen statements that we are in a "propaganda war," combined with his new proposed resolution, make it even more clear that he is taking this retaliatory action because he disagrees with a particular viewpoint. That is patently unconstitutional," an attorney for O Cinema said in a statement.
