![‘Seized’ Review: Small Town Values Meet Big Journalistic Controversy In This Well-Made Documentary [Sundance]](https://cdn.theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/24105236/Seized-Still_1.jpg "‘Seized’ Review: Small Town Values Meet Big Journalistic Controversy In This Well-Made Documentary [Sundance]")
Remember August 11th, 2023? The town of Marion, Kansas does, as a police raid on the offices of a local newspaper known to all as the Marion County Record, along with the home of its editor-in-chief Eric Meyer, brought national attention to the town, raised enough questions about legal boundaries and freedom of speech to warrant its own publication and even may have inadvertently caused the death of its 98-year old owner, Joan Meyer, also the mother of Eric himself. It’s the sort of story many might view as nothing short of complicated, one profiled in detail through bodycam clips, interviews with newspaper staff & residents, and footage filmed in the years following that fateful day, in a documentary called “Seized.”
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That bodycam footage opens the film, with County Record employees clearly caught off guard by police demands to surrender their phones as they enter the modest office with the intent to search and seize. Meanwhile, a similar scenario is underway at the Meyer residence, where Eric can be seen protesting law enforcement, and a highly emotional Joan sits mere feet away, vocally expressing her displeasure as thinly veiled threats are directed at the nearest officer. Vague comments about someone who was once negatively discussed in the paper as the spark of the day’s events escape Eric’s mouth, but as the film moves into the immediate aftermath, it begins to question whether any substantial reason existed at all.
That said, despite the undeniable small-town nature and overall vibe of Marion, its newspaper never shied away from the truth, with numerous articles over the years editorializing on anything worthy of Eric’s thoughts, even at one point focusing on a COVID-caused lack of education, as evidenced in children’s letters to Santa. This article, along with others that appeared to exist if for no other reason to Marion’s population than to ruffle a few feathers, would cause just as much opposition as there was support, but it was the actions of then-police chief Gideon Cody, the name mentioned in the film’s opening scenes, and his questionable relationship with a local business owner that would serve to set Eric’s journalistic actions in motion, but hardly finding a concrete justification to what would later occur on a summer day three years ago.
The well-spoken Eric, seen interviewed throughout, is as complex as he is transparent; there’s honesty, sometimes brutal, present in every interview throughout the film, a trait that would see him finding enemies in council members and townspeople as articles inspired by public websites and open records would all become fodder, even if it means a reputation becomes irreparably damaged.
It’s something Finn Hartnett, a New York City transplant newly hired to the Record one year following the raid must accept were he to find the growth as a journalist he desires as seen during the course of his time with the paper, with the camera following while he attempts to awkwardly acquire a quote or two from paradegoers about local activities, asking his coworkers for story leads and, eventually, exploring another official’s less-than-wholesome recent misdeeds which could very well result in the loss of his subject’s job. It’s an interesting thread, one that finds balance alongside the time spent discussing the raid’s repercussions and public opinion of the Record; if it sounds like such a narrative sits on display as a fight for screen time, that assumption couldn’t be more incorrect.
By jumping into the meat of the story almost immediately, to a fitting final act showcasing Finn’s reflection on his time with the Record and what he’s learned, all that’s housed within works well to deliver an effective look at First (and Fourth) Amendment rights, both of which figure heavily into a class-action lawsuit filed by Eric among others, and small town tensions without detouring fully into overly-political confusion.
The structure may not offer anything revolutionary outside the realm of the documentary playbook, but in doing so, it presents its subject matter in an easily digestible form, free of the baggage that might exist in the hands of another filmmaker; director Sharon Liese clearly knows how to give its talking heads and their thoughts enough time at center stage. In doing so, what could be akin to a mind-numbing lecture in the hands of another filmmaker becomes something fascinating, taking the atmosphere of a small town’s controversy to an unexpected level.
What’s a perfect audience for “Seized”? Surprisingly, anyone. Maybe what happened on August 11th, 2023, has captured even a modicum of attention. Perhaps it’s how everything unfolded after and before. Maybe it’s simply to see a well-made film covering it all. It’s the sort of journalism befitting of Eric Meyer. His mother would be proud. [A]
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