Miami Beach mayor's plan to evict O Cinema has brought global backlash. Will it pass?
A proposal last week by Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner to terminate O Cinema's lease after the art house theater screened the Oscar-winning documentary 'No Other Land' has been met with fierce backlash, both locally and abroad.
On Monday afternoon, Meiner and city commissioners received an open letter from more than 600 members of the 'international filmmaking community,' who called the mayor's effort 'an attack on freedom of expression.' Among the signers were filmmaker and activist Michael Moore, Miami-born 'Moonlight' director Barry Jenkins, and Laura Poitras, who directed the 2015 Oscar-winning documentary 'Citizenfour.'
Meanwhile, O Cinema is preparing for possible legal action. The theater is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which has questioned the legality of Meiner's resolution to oust the theater from a city-owned building and strip its grant funding. The theater is also receiving legal counsel from the Miami-based Community Justice Project.
But ahead of a City Commission meeting Wednesday where the proposal is on the agenda and expected to draw dozens of speakers, Meiner has shown no signs of backing down.
'No Other Land' documents the destruction of a group of Palestinian villages in the West Bank at the hands of the Israeli military. In a newsletter last Tuesday, Meiner, who is Jewish and a staunch supporter of Israel, announced his proposal to evict the theater after it proceeded with screenings of the film, which he called 'a false one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our City and residents.' He has not spoken publicly on the matter since.
Meiner met Monday morning with representatives of O Cinema, but it doesn't appear that the two sides reached a resolution.
ACLU of Florida Legal Director Daniel Tilley said after the meeting that he couldn't talk about the details of settlement negotiations, and a city spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. But hours later, O Cinema announced it would hold a press conference Tuesday 'to discuss the First Amendment concerns' raised by Meiner's proposal.
'Defunding and evicting a local independent cinema under these circumstances would be patently unconstitutional, plain and simple,' Tilley said in a statement. 'If supporters of the resolution truly value freedom, they must also value free speech, which means all speech is protected — not just the speech certain politicians agree with.'
The theater signed a five-year lease with the city in 2019 that was renewed last year until July 2026, according to documents reviewed by the Miami Herald. Under the agreement, the city can terminate the lease 'for convenience' with 180 days' notice 'without cause and without liability' to the city.
But some legal experts have said the mayor's proposal may run afoul of free speech protections, in part because Meiner has indicated that his resolution was brought in response to the theater's decision to screen 'No Other Land' over his objections.
'[N]ormalizing hate and then disseminating antisemitism in a facility owned by the taxpayers of Miami Beach ... is unjust to the values of our city and residents and should not be tolerated,' Meiner wrote in his newsletter last week. 'For this reason, I am introducing legislation to move on from O Cinema, as permitted by our contract, and seek a cultural partner that better aligns with our community values.'
Meiner would need support from at least three city commissioners to achieve the majority vote required to pass his resolution. Only one commissioner, David Suarez, has publicly indicated support for Meiner's approach, telling the Herald last week that Miami Beach has 'zero tolerance for pro Hamas/terrorist propaganda,' though Suarez did not explicitly say how he would vote.
READ MORE: Miami Beach mayor moves to end O Cinema lease after screening of Israeli-Palestinian film
Two commissioners, Kristen Rosen Gonzalez and Tanya Katzoff Bhatt, have raised concerns about the proposal. Rosen Gonzalez said that canceling the theater's lease 'would result in an expensive lawsuit we will lose' and proposed that instead of canceling the showings of 'No Other Land,' the cinema could also show another film, 'Screams Before Silence,' a documentary told through the perspective of Israeli women who were attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
Three other commissioners have provided little or no public indication of their views on the proposal. Commissioners Alex Fernandez and Laura Dominguez declined to comment, and Commissioner Joseph Magazine told the Herald on Friday that he was 'in fact-gathering mode about what the right decision is.'
'I'm really focusing on trying to speak to as many community leaders that I almost know will have differing opinions on this,' Magazine said. 'My goal is always to bring our community together.'
Meiner's proposal would terminate O Cinema's lease at the old City Hall building on Washington Avenue in South Beach and immediately cut off future city funding. In recent months, the city agreed to fulfill two grant agreements with O Cinema — one for about $26,000 and one for about $54,000 — and has already paid half of those amounts.
In a joint letter to city officials last Friday, the Florida Muslim Bar Association, Palestinian American Bar Association and American Muslim Bar Association said they were 'troubled by the actions being taken to limit the public's access to diverse viewpoints, as well as the cinema's ability to conduct business free from viewpoint-based censorship from the City.'
'The First Amendment of the United States protects freedom of speech and expression,' the groups said. 'This includes the right of filmmakers to produce and exhibit their work, and the right of the public to view it.'
READ MORE: Miami Beach mayor urges theater to cancel Oscar-winner he calls 'hateful propaganda'
In a March 5 letter, Meiner had urged the theater to cancel scheduled screenings of the film, citing critiques from Israeli and German government officials. O Cinema CEO Vivian Marthell responded the next day that the theater would not show the film based on 'concerns of antisemitic rhetoric.'
But Marthell reversed course one day later, a decision that followed conversations with the theater's staff and board of directors, according to Kareem Tabsch, co-founder and chair of the board of directors of O Cinema.
'That was a decision that was made under duress,' Tabsch said of the initial cancellation. 'There was a panic for the future of the organization.'
Since deciding to show the film and facing the threat of eviction, Tabsch said O Cinema has received an outpouring of support.
'The filmmaking community has really rallied behind this, because I think ... an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,' he said. 'We cannot let government become involved in dictating what is permissible or not for arts organizations to present to the public, and we certainly can't allow them to decide what the public should be viewing.'
In addition to letter-writing campaigns to elected officials and statements of support from groups like the International Documentary Association, O Cinema has received 'a modest uptick' in donations, Tabsch said. Still, he said, the theater relies heavily on city funding.
'If we are evicted and our funding is cut, we will be homeless,' he said.
South Beach is O Cinema's only current location, though the theater announced plans last month to open a new location in Miami's Little River neighborhood in June.
This story was produced with financial support from Trish and Dan Bell and from donors comprising the South Florida Jewish and Muslim Communities, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
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