Documentary Filmmakers Blast Proposal to Shut Down Miami Beach’s O Cinema: ‘An Attack on Freedom of Expression’

variety.com:

Addie Morfoot Contributor Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner’s March 13 proposal to shut down the city’s nonprofit art house cinema, O Cinema, following screenings of the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land” is not sitting well with the members of the doc community.

On Monday, 752 members of the international filmmaking community including doc feature Oscar winners Michael Moore, Laura Poitras, Ezra Edelman and Alex Gibney signed an open letter to the city of Miami Beach that stated, in part, that the Mayor’s threat to shut down the O Cinema is “an attack on freedom of expression, the right of artists to tell their stories, and a violation of the First Amendment.” Alfred Spellman, who co-founded Rakontur with Billy Corben in 2000, also signed the letter.

The Miami Beach native has produced over 15 docus, including “From Russia With Lev” and “Cocaine Cowboys.” “This is a case that is definitional of what the First Amendment is supposed to protect against, which is government encroachment on speech,” Spellman told Variety. “The Mayor is trying to claim that the content of the documentary is anti-semitic, but that doesn’t matter.

So long as it is not legally obscene, the mayor has no business interfering with what the O Cinema chooses to program.” The story of the resistance of Palestinian activists against forced displacement and settler expansion in the West Bank community of Masafer Yatta, “No Other Land” debuted at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Documentary Award and Panorama Dokumente Audience Award.