Miami Beach mayor moves to end O Cinema lease after screening of Israeli-Palestinian film
Posted by Gerard on March 13, 2025, 8:24 am
"The mayor of Miami Beach is proposing to terminate a lease agreement and discontinue thousands of dollars in financial support for an independent film theater after it screened an Oscar-winning documentary about the ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank. In a newsletter sent to residents Tuesday night, Mayor Steven Meiner explained his objections over the documentary “No Other Land,” which has had several showings at O Cinema, an art house film cinema in South Beach, despite pressure from Meiner to cancel the screenings. He called the film, which won an Academy Award last week but has faced criticism from supporters of Israel, “a false one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our City and residents.” Meiner is now introducing city legislation that seeks to terminate the lease agreement with the cinema, which rents space from the city at the old City Hall on Washington Avenue, and to immediately cut all city funding. In recent months, the city agreed to fulfill two grant agreements with O Cinema — one for $25,831 and one for $54,071 — and has already paid half of those amounts, according to the proposal. Meiner is now moving to cancel the rest. The mayor did not immediately respond to the Miami Herald’s request for comment on Wednesday, nor did representatives from O Cinema. City commissioners are set to vote on the proposed legislation at a meeting next Wednesday. Last week, in a letter to O Cinema CEO Vivian Marthell, Meiner urged the theater to cancel scheduled screenings of the film, citing critiques from Israeli and German government officials. According to Meiner’s newsletter, Marthell initially responded that the theater would not show the film. “Due to the concerns of antisemitic rhetoric, we have decided to withdraw the film from our programming,” Marthell wrote in a letter to Meiner on March 6. “This film has exposed a rift which makes us unable to do the thing we’ve always sought out to do which is to foster thoughtful conversations about cinematic works.”
Spinelessness is a feature of the arts "leadership" in that town,.
Miami Beach has faced past controversy over artistic expression in 2019, when the city removed a portrait of Raymond Herisse, a Black man fatally shot by Beach police, from a city art project.
on March 13, 2025, 8:24 am