This Florida cinema showed a documentary about Palestine. Now, the mayor could shut it down.

Kareem Tabsch, co-founder of Miami Beach’s O Cinema, loves his hometown. He’s made an award-winning movie about Miami Beach’s historic Jewish community. He has been lauded in his local press for his contributions to South Florida’s artistic culture. And in 2008, he co-founded an arthouse movie theater to give his neighborhood access to independent films that would otherwise pass it by in favor of more lucrative screens elsewhere.

But, until last week, Tabsch had never interacted much with Miami Beach’s municipal government. That changed on March 11th, when the cinema received a letter from Miami Beach mayor Steven Meiner, telling the business they had to cancel their planned showings of “No Other Land,” a documentary about a Palestinian village struggling to survive in the West Bank amid Israeli government and settler violence. If the movie theatre failed to comply, Meiner said he would introduce a City Council resolution to terminate the cinema’s lease in a city-owned building and revoke at least $40,000 in grant money. 

On March 3rd, “No Other Land” made history when it won the Oscar for Best Documentary. But it still does not have a US distributor. That means that one-on-one deals with independent theaters like O Cinema are the only way US audiences can see the film.

Tabsch’s patrons, he told Mother Jones, wanted “No Other” Land in particular: so, despite the eviction threat, O Cinema went ahead and screened the film. They sold out every single showing. 

“We recognize that some stories—especially those rooted in real-world conflicts—can evoke strong feelings and passionate reactions. As they should,” O Cinema CEO Vivian Marthell said in a statement. “Our decision to screen ‘No Other Land’ is not a declaration of political alignment. It is a bold reaffirmation of our fundamental belief that every voice deserves to be heard.” T

he resolution canceling O Cinema’s lease and withdrawing city funding is due for a vote on Wednesday. That same night, O Cinema’s public schedule lists another showing of “No Other Land.”

I talked with Tabsch about what happens when your local government decides screening a film is “not consistent” with your city’s values. 

How was the decision to screen “No Other Land” made? 

The film had been on our radar pretty much all last year, because it’s been so universally lauded. People started asking us: When are you going to show it? So discussions began in the fall of last year. It’s a 69-seat theater, so scheduling is tricky…we kind of earmarked this early 2025 window. That was before the Academy Awards. We always try to show as many of the Academy Award nominees as possible, which is pretty common for art-house theaters. 

At the time, when we programmed it, we were the only theater in South Florida showing “No Other Land.” We may have been the only theater in the state of Florida. 

Now, after we’ve shown it, other theaters are coming in to show it. 

Let’s talk about what happened with the mayor. How did you first hear about this threat of eviction? 

We received a letter from the Mayor. The initial reaction, from many of us, was that this very clearly felt like a threat from our elected officials. And I don’t think in our history we have ever received any outreach from any local politician asking us about or questioning our programming. 

It came across as a not-so-veiled threat to our future. Initially, we felt the future of our indie theater was threatened, and decided that we were not going to show the film. Vivian [Marthell, CEO of O Cinema] sent a letter to the mayor saying as much. But, very quickly, I think we all realized that was really against the mission of our organization, the spirit of independent film, and really an affront to the First Amendment. So, within 12 hours, she sent an email to the mayor where she informed him that we were actually going to go through with the screenings.

And we went through with the screenings! Every screening of “No Other Land” at O Cinema was sold out. 

The overwhelming feedback that I heard from members of the community was very positive. They were thankful that we were showing the film. Folks walked up to the staff and thanked them for showing the It’s very clear that Miami Beach audiences, in particular, wanted to see the film and were grateful to be able to do so.

You, yourself, are a documentarian. As someone who makes documentary films, what was your reaction to all this? 

As someone who’s born and raised and lives in this community and has seen the trajectory of its growth and evolution, I was really taken aback by the course this has taken. We see more and more attempts at censorship at different levels—especially at the federal government level, we’re seeing a lot of threats to freedom of expression.

But I never truly expected that in this vibrant cultural community that is Miami Beach, where folks have so many different backgrounds, and many of them came fleeing oppression… I never expected our local government to decide that showing a film was so much against the values of the city that they had to shut us down. I never expected our local government to enact retribution against an arts organization for extending and fulfilling their artistic license and freedom to show films. 

So, what happens now? 

The Mayor’s resolution to defund the cinema and cancel its lease will come to a vote and a discussion on Wednesday. It’s my sincere hope that we will find an amicable solution to this. 

I mean, listen, I respect deeply held views. And I know the subject matter of the film is certainly provocative, and it could evoke strong feelings. But good films evoke strong feelings. As a filmmaker, I always say you don’t have to like my movies, but I want to make you feel something one way or another. 

This film, clearly, evokes strong feelings in local government. But I hope cooler heads will prevail and we can move forward operating in the city, because we love the city of Miami Beach, and our community loves us. That’s evident by how they come out to see our films, and how they came out to see this one.