O Cinema. Courtesy of O Cinema
Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner officially rescinded his recent proposal to defund and evict the government-housed and funded O Cinema for showing No Other Land.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.”
The revised resolution was added to the meeting agenda overnight, likely because Meiner’s fellow commissioners seemed set to reject his original proposal 5-2. Indeed, during yesterday’s meeting, commissioners Tanya Katzoff Bhatt, Laura Dominguez, Alex Fernandez, Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, and Joseph Magazine all spoke in opposition to Meiner’s motions, old and new. This new proposal also arrived just one day after an open letter to the city opposing the potential shutdown of O Cinema was signed by over 600 filmmakers.
“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.”
Dozens of attendees came to speak in support of O Cinema, though many were under the impression that the theater was still in jeopardy of losing US$40,000 in grant funding and its lease.
Arnold Lehman, director of the Brooklyn Museum, when Mayor Rudy Giuliani attempted to revoke vital funding for their showcasing of Chris Offil works, was one of the first to approach the dais.
“At the time, this was the country’s most publicized First Amendment case—I hope that O Cinema versus the City of Miami Beach does not become the second one,” he said. “Although the government is not required to subsidize arts programs, once it does so, it cannot rescind funding or threaten eviction because it disagrees with the viewpoint expressed in a particular work of art.”
Other constituents, like Miami Beach resident Adam Saper, quickly tailored their speeches to reflect Meiner’s new position.
“It is no worse to censor art than it is to mandate its display. The mayor’s first resolution to shutter O Cinema is bound to fail because it is unsupportable—by Miami Beach residents, by the arts community, and by the law. Imposing a cultural mandate is equally unsupportable. In both resolutions, the mayor seeks to deny the legitimacy of a Palestinian perspective. At the same time, he proposes to codify his personal beliefs about the morality of Israel’s deadly violence as official city policy. When governments demand that art serve their political agenda, they do not protect the truth. They manufacture it,” Saper said.
Miami-born and based filmmaker Monica Sorelle, who is also a former O Cinema employee and signee of the open letter, had some particularly strong words for the mayor. “Your hurt feelings, your sensitivity to truth, and your misinformed beliefs are so paper-thin that a film by Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers together can shake you to censorship,” she said.
While the overwhelming majority of attendees on Wednesday were staunch champions of O Cinema, Meiner’s few defenders were not only eager to portray No Other Land as antisemitic and hateful, but also praised nationwide crackdowns on pro-Palestinian protesters.
“It's sad when people try to hide under the guise of art to promote hate,” remarked the Mayor of nearby Hialeah, Esteban Bovo, who called into the meeting via phone. “What we’ve seen over the last year and a half of antisemitism across our campuses [are] folks that come into this country as guests with visas just to spew hate against the Jewish people. We need to stand up against this.”
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who also called into the meeting, was met with boos and heckles from attendees after expressing his solidarity with Meiner’s original proposal. “I believe that anyone who operates a public theater is also a steward of the public’s trust,” he said, amid escalating audience pushback. “The fact that I’m speaking and everyone’s shouting means that they want to censor me! I stand with [Mayor Meiner] and I would do similarly if it were a similar situation in Miami.”
Also met with fervent dissent was Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, the consul general of Israel in Miami. As he supported the mayor’s new proposal by saying that Israel is in a “very complicated situation in which full context should be shown,” the crowd became intolerant and began chanting that his allocated minute of speaking time had run out. He ended his speech by saying, “to those chanters in the back: you are antisemites, I hate to break it to you.”
The most derisive of Meiner’s crusaders was the sole commissioner willing to vote with him. David Suarez not only labeled No Other Land as “a megaphone for Hamas propaganda,” but also targeted attendees, hurling racist rhetoric about how minority groups like women and queer people would be treated in Palestine.
“What makes me sick is seeing people here [who] would be the first victims of Hamas…If they were in Gaza they’d be sexually mutilated, thrown off rooftops, and stoned to death. Yet here they are lecturing us about morality,” Suarez said.
After nearly two and a half hours, everyone—from constituents to commissioners—said their piece. While the majority of elected officials deemed it unacceptable for the government to interfere with artistic programming, the Commissioners were adamant that citizens who spoke against Israel’s genocide and in favor of No Other Land’s perspective were spouting antisemitic rhetoric.
“Just as I cannot support the item before us today to end the lease of O Cinema, I have to say I am deeply disappointed by the hatred that has been displayed in these chambers,” said Commissioner Fernandez. “I expect more from a community that believes in freedom of speech.”
Ironically, the majority of citizens who approached the podium to defend O Cinema proudly stated their Jewish identity.
“Whether the mayor likes it or not, I'm a member of the Miami Jewish community,” said one such resident, Geneva Claus. “Regardless, criticism of Israel or depicting life for Palestinians under Israel’s occupation, as the film does, is not antisemitic. Shutting down the film does not erase Israel’s violence; in fact, preventing the facts from being told enables and makes us complicit in that violence.”
Even local residents who identify as Israeli approached the microphone and declared that O Cinema had the right to program whatever they saw fit.
“I’m scared of antisemitism. So is my family,” said Jessica Lane, member of a “proud Zionist family” and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. “But this is not the way to do it. We need freedom of expression.”
As the debate on Meiner’s proposal came to a close, the mayor attempted to contextualize his actions against O Cinema.
“I legitimately view this as a public safety threat,” he elaborated. “Not immediately—I don't think anyone in Miami Beach is going to get hurt or attacked because this movie is being shown…[but] what I was trying to do was highlight a level of propaganda that eventually can lead to devastation.”
Yet his final remarks served to concretely withdraw his original motion and officially defer his new proposal, which the mayor believes is “open to more discussion.”
In an attempt to end things on a somewhat mollifying note, Meiner invited citizens and O Cinema staff up to the dais for a group photo with elected officials. It’s unclear if the theater’s programming will come under fire from the mayor at another Miami Beach City Commission meeting, or if the overwhelming pushback will be enough to keep this resolution off the docket for the foreseeable future.
“We're looking to get back to a good place in our relationship with the city as we have always been,” Tabsch concludes. “We hope we can find ways to continue collaborating together.”
After the meeting, O Cinema and the American Civil Liberties Union—which recently joined the theater’s legal team—held a joint press conference at the cinema. Tabsch and O Cinema CEO Vivian Marthell were joined by Elizabeth Boone, artistic and executive director of Miami Light Project; Mitch Kaplan, founder of local retail store and nonprofit Books & Books; and Daniel Tilley, ACLU’s legal director and one of the theater’s representatives. They reinforced the importance of preserving First Amendment protections.
“In a time of disintegrating civil and legal norms, we should all be activating to protect our constitution, not cast it aside,” Tilley said. “I invite the commissioners of the city of Miami Beach to join us.”
Natalia Keogan is a critic and journalist based in NYC. Her bylines include Filmmaker magazine, A.V. Club, Reverse Shot, and Paste, amongst others.