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The Miami Mayor’s Fight to Control a Movie Theater Isn’t Over Yet

Mayor Steve Meiner abandoned his attempt to shut down an indie theater for showing No Other Land, but he still wants a say in what they put onscreen.

Mayor Steve Meiner looked almost apologetic on Wednesday at Miami Beach’s City Hall as he declared he would withdraw his own proposal, which threatened to terminate the arthouse theater O Cinema’s current lease and grant funding because it had screened the Oscar-winning Palestinian-Israeli documentary No Other Land. Mountains filmmaker Monica Sorelle took her allotted minute to quote a statement from No Other Land co-director Yuval Abraham, and referenced a recent hate crime in which a Jewish Miami Beach resident shot two Israeli tourists because he believed they were Palestinians — an example of how hatred spreads blindly. But he also deferred a vote on a second resolution, which would “encourage” the theater to show films that “highlight a fair and balanced viewpoint of the current war.” An email from O Cinema went out Friday afternoon, addressed to friends and supporters, vowing to “remain in conversation with the city until it is resolved.”

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