CENSORSHIP CLASH

Mayor Moves to Punish Movie Theater for Screening Oscar-Winning Documentary

The independent O Cinema could be forced to shut down.

Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner is threatening to cut funding and terminate the lease of O Cinema after the independent theater screened No Other Land, an Oscar-winning documentary about Israeli military actions in the West Bank. Meiner, who called the film a “false one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people,” introduced a resolution Wednesday to revoke the cinema’s city funding and cancel its lease, with a commission vote expected next week. O Cinema initially pulled the documentary after Meiner objected but later reversed its decision, citing free speech concerns. Critics, including the film’s Israeli co-director, accused Meiner of censorship. “Banning a film only makes people more determined to see it,” filmmaker Yuval Abraham said. While some local officials have also criticized the documentary, they’ve defended the theater’s right to show it. City Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez criticized Meiner’s move in an email to residents, saying: “The answer to propaganda is not censorship, it’s truth.”

The Beast used specially trained AI to summarize the original source material cited in this article. It was selected, edited, and fact-checked by Daily Beast staff in compliance with our Code of Ethics.