DUBAI: International filmmakers — including Oscar winners Michael Moore, Laura Poitras, Ezra Edelman and Alex Gibney — have signed an open letter to the city of Miami Beach after Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner sought to shut down the city’s nonprofit art house cinema, O Cinema, following screenings of the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land.”
“No Other Land” is a collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers that follows activist Adra as he documents the destruction of his hometown, which Israeli soldiers are tearing down to use as a military training zone, at the southern edge of the West Bank.
On March 13, Miami Beach Mayor Meiner called the film “a false one-sided propaganda attack on the Jewish people that is not consistent with the values of our city and residents.” He introduced legislation to terminate the lease for the O Cinema, a city-owned property. Meiner is also asking the city to “immediately discontinue” approximately $40,000 in city grant funding.
On Monday, 752 members of the international filmmaking community signed an open letter slamming what they said was “an attack on freedom of expression, the right of artists to tell their stories, and a violation of the First Amendment.”
Alfred Spellman, who co-founded Miami-based media studio Rakontur, signed the letter and spoke to Variety about his motivations for doing so.
“This is a case that is definitional of what the First Amendment is supposed to protect against, which is government encroachment on speech,” Spellman told Variety. “The Mayor is trying to claim that the content of the documentary is anti-semitic, but that doesn’t matter. So long as it is not legally obscene, the mayor has no business interfering with what the O Cinema chooses to program.
“The problem here is that there is an attempt to shift the discussion to the merits or the demerits of the film and the filmmaking and the issues surrounding it,” said Spellman. “If you are a committed free speech advocate, none of that matters.”
“This has come as a complete shock and surprise to us,” O Cinema co-founder and chair of the board of directors Kareem Tabsch told Variety. “In the organization’s nearly 15 years, we have never heard from an elected official who has questioned or challenged a film we have shown, and we’ve operated in multiple municipalities.”
Miami Beach commissioners will vote on Meiner’s O Cinema proposal on Wednesday.
Filmmakers sign open letter slamming Miami Beach mayor’s legal action over Palestinian-Israeli documentary
https://arab.news/c8mcx
Filmmakers sign open letter slamming Miami Beach mayor’s legal action over Palestinian-Israeli documentary
Cairo book fair breaks visitor records
- Strong Saudi participation underscores KSA’s prominent role in Arab cultural landscape
- Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988, was selected as the fair’s featured personality
CAIRO: The 57th edition of the Cairo International Book Fair has attracted record public attendance, with the number of visits reaching nearly 6 million, up from a reported 5.5 million previously.
Egypt’s Minister of Culture Ahmed Fouad Hanou said: “This strong turnout reflects the public’s eagerness across all age groups to engage with the exhibition’s diverse cultural and intellectual offerings.”
Hanou said the event included “literary and intellectual activities, meetings with thinkers and creative figures, and thousands of titles spanning various fields of knowledge.”
The Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988, was selected as the fair’s featured personality, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of his death.
The exhibition’s official poster features a famous quote by Mahfouz: “Who stops reading for an hour falls centuries behind.”
A total of 1,457 publishing houses from 83 countries participated in the fair. Mahfouz’s novels occupied a special place, as Egypt’s Diwan Library showcased the author’s complete works, about 54 books.
“The pavilion of the Egyptian National Library and Archives witnessed exceptionally high attendance throughout the fair, showcasing a collection of rare and significant books.
Among the highlights was the book “Mosques of Egypt” in Arabic and English, Dr. Sherif Saleh, head of financial and administrative affairs at the Egyptian National Library and Archives, told Arab News.
The fair ended on Tuesday with a closing ceremony that featured a cultural performance titled “Here is Cairo.”
The event included the announcement of the winners of the fair’s awards, as well as the recipient of the Naguib Mahfouz Award for Arabic Fiction.
Organizers described this year’s edition as having a celebratory and cultural character, bringing together literature, art, and cinema.
Romania was the guest of honor this year, coinciding with the 120th anniversary of Egyptian-Romanian relations.
At the Saudi pavilion, visitors were welcomed with traditional coffee. It showcased diverse aspects of Saudi culture, offering a rich experience of the Kingdom’s heritage and creativity.
There was significant participation from Saudi Arabia at the event, highlighting the Kingdom’s prominent role in the Arab cultural arena.
Saudi Arabia’s participation aimed to showcase its literary and intellectual output, in alignment with the objectives of Vision 2030.
The Kingdom’s delegation was led by Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Egypt Saleh bin Eid Al-Hussaini. Also in attendance were Dr. Abdul Latif Abdulaziz Al-Wasel, CEO of the Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission, and Dr. Hilah Al-Khalaf, the commission’s director-general.
The King Abdulaziz Public Library placed the Encyclopedia of Saudi Arabia in a prominent position at the pavilion. The encyclopedia, consisting of 20 volumes, is organized according to the Kingdom’s culturally diverse regions.
Founded in 1980 by King Abdullah, the library was established to facilitate access to knowledge and preserve heritage collections. Over the years, it has grown into one of the Kingdom’s most important cultural institutions.
Internationally, the library has strengthened ties between Saudi Arabia and China, including the opening of a branch at Peking University and receiving the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Award for Cultural Cooperation between the two nations.
Regionally, the library has played a pivotal role in the Arab world through the creation of the Unified Arabic Cataloging Project, one of the most important initiatives contributing to knowledge accessibility and alignment with global standards.
