Miami Beach Mayor Threatens To Close Down Cinema For Showing Oscar Winner ‘No Other Land’; Director Says Banning Doc “Won’t Work”
deadline.comThe mayor of Miami Beach, FL, is threatening to shut down an arthouse movie theater for showing the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, branding the film as “antisemitic.” Mayor Steven Meiner issued a draft resolution calling for his city to terminate a lease agreement with O Cinema, located at Old City Hall, a property owned by the city.
The resolution would also eliminate about $40,000 in grants provided by Miami Beach to the nonprofit that runs the theater. O Cinema began screening No Other Land last Friday, five days after it won Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards.
The film, directed by a collective of four Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, provides a ground-level view of life for Palestinian residents of the rural Masafer Yatta area of the occupied West Bank who live under an expulsion order by the Israel Defense Forces, which wants the land for a military training zone.
The documentary shows IDF forces knocking down Palestinian homes and schools pursuant to the expulsion order, as well as violent attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians.
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