The mayor of Miami Beach wants to terminate a lease and end funding for an independent theater that’s screening this year’s best feature documentary Oscar winner, No Other Land. The Miami Herald:
Last week, in a letter to O Cinema CEO Vivian Marthell, [Miami Beach Mayor Steven] 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.”
The next day, however, the O Cinema CEO reversed course. Marthell confirmed to the Miami Herald on Friday that the film would continue with its scheduled screenings. After receiving media attention for the film controversy, the theater sold out screenings and added two more dates later in March. “But let me be clear: our decision to screen NO OTHER LAND is not a declaration of political alignment. It is, however, a bold reaffirmation of our fundamental belief that every voice deserves to be heard, even, and perhaps especially, when it challenges us,” Marthell said in an email to the Herald late last week.
Well, not in Miami Beach. According to the article, city commissioners share the mayor’s view of the film.
“A religious Jew was voted as Mayor, along with a Zionist city council. Unlike other cities, we have zero tolerance for pro Hamas/ terrorist propaganda,” [Miami Beach City Commissioner David] Suarez wrote in a text message to the Herald. “The City of Miami Beach will continue to stand up for our Jewish population, home to holocaust survivors, and while most people use ‘Never Again’ as a platitude, we mean it.”
At least one of the commissioners, Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, agrees in principle but believes canceling the theater’s lease and funding would subject the city to lawsuits that she suspects it would lose.
The Herald notes the two directors who accepted the Oscar for No Other Land are Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham. From the speech:
“We made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together our voices are stronger,” Abraham said from the Oscars stage. “We see each other in the atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people, which must end, in the Israeli hostages brutally taken in the crime of October 7, which must be freed. When I look at Basel, I see my brother, but we are unequal.”
I haven’t seen No Other Land. The only Oscar nominated film I’ve seen so far this year was Conclave. I am not now and never have been a Catholic, but for some reason, I find movies and TV shows about Vatican intrigue fascinating. (The Young Pope and The New Pope on Max are both excellent!)
I wondered briefly what would happen if Catholic officials tried to punish a publicly subsidized theater for screening Conclave since it portrays the Catholic Church in a less-than-flattering light. Then I remembered reading about something similar that used to happen a lot in Massachusetts decades ago, only the targets were books, magazines, plays, songs, etc., that were considered lewd or otherwise offensive.
It was a cultural phenomenon known as “Banned in Boston,” and it didn’t go quite the way city officials hoped. The Warren Court had to sort that bunch out. I don’t know if the Roberts Court is up to the task.
Open thread.
