I have not seen “No Other Land” yet, though it is high on my list. This is true for multiple reasons: 1.) It is a contemporary documentary; 2.) it won this year’s Oscar for Best Documentary Feature; and 3.) it involves a journalist.
The reason I have yet to see this film is “No Other Land” still does not have a distributor. This makes it difficult for cinemas to screen it, given how such films often face limited or no release as a result.
Good news: “No Other Land” opens Friday at The Triplex Cinema as part of their Limited Engagement series. Overall, the Triplex’s Limited Engagement series is phenomenal and makes me long for the Berkshires’ cultural embrace.
“No Other Land” also opens at The Moviehouse in Millerton this Friday.
Of course, the people of Miami Beach, Fla., are dealing with their mayor’s impulse to force the local independent theater to cancel screenings of the film. Apparently, he believes its subject matter is more than the Jewish people of south Florida can handle.
Made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective, you can read the directors’ statement here and decide for yourself. But you should also know the Miami Beach commissioners are voting today on whether or not to terminate the theater’s lease for rejecting the mayor’s request to nix all screenings of this significant film, which still has no distributor.
If you were me, you would strongly encourage everyone you know to get up, get dressed, get tickets, and go see this Oscar winner. If it challenges you, so be it. But censoring it is surely not the answer, despite the theater occupying space in a city-owned building. Frankly, this strikes me as all the more reason to keep calm and carry on, just as O Cinema and their supporters seem to be doing.
From Nantucket, I sincerely extend my deep appreciation for thoughtful creative directors, brainy film programmers, conscientious distributors, and sophisticated audiences who all sustain inconvenient stories. We need to work together, not censor the work.
Thus do I hope Miami Beach’s commissioners know what. is at stake when they take today’s vote. And I hope it is unanimously in favor of documentary film.
