Yesterday, Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner officially rescinded his recent proposal to defund and evict the government-housed and funded O Cinema for showing No Other Land. At a Miami Beach City Commission meeting on Wednesday, March 19, Meiner presented an alternate proposal, which would require the independent theater to “showcase films that highlight a fair and balanced viewpoint of the current war between Israel and the groups Hamas and Hezbollah.” “We were so very glad to see the vast majority of the commissioners speak up for the importance of free speech without government interference,” O Cinema co-founder and board member Kareem Tabsch tells Documentary, after the meeting concluded. “And grateful that Mayor Meiner listened to his community and his colleagues and withdrew the resolution.”
Exhibition
By programming the Academy Award-winning documentary No Other Land , the Miami Beach-based O Cinema attracted the ire of Mayor Steven Meiner, who last
As representatives of the Art House Convergence and International Documentary Association (IDA), we find the threat made by the mayor of Miami Beach to pull the funding and lease of O Cinema gravely concerning.
As the theatrical market for arthouse and documentary films continues to recover from the many challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, it may not seem