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Every year, the community of Lawrence, Kansas celebrates the Free State Festival, a cultural event that boasts its musical artists, visual artists, and most of all, its filmmakers. What began as a humble showing of short films in 2011 has become a much bigger event over the past 15 years. Now in 2026, Free State is a week-long event at the end of June including big names in the film industry with Boots Riley's I Love Boosters, and the film that I was lucky enough to see, Sharon Liese's Seized.
Seized is the latest film by Leise, after her documentaries Transhood and The Flagmakers. The former being set in her hometown of Kansas City. Seized takes us back to Kansas, to the small town of Marion during a contentious time in the town's history. On August 11th, 2023, the local newspaper, "The Marion County Record," and its staff's homes were illegally raided by local police. They seized their computers, cell phones, reporting materials, and financial records. The uproarious raids on her home contributed to the death of 98-year-old Joan Meyer the following day.
The film focuses on Eric Meyer (The son of Joan Meyer and owner of the paper) and his mission to hold whoever was responsible for the raids, and his mother's death, accountable. Other citizens, journalists, and government officials weigh in on the raids and how it affected the town. The film tackles questions of abuse of power, journalism, the U.S. constitution, how the small town of Marion, Kansas, wound up in the center of a media frenzy, and how they move on from the events that shook them years ago.
Nearly a year after the raids, Finn Hartnett, a recent graduate of the University of Chicago, joined the reporting team of the Marion County Record. The documentary opens with his first day on the job, which coincided with the recent arrival of the documentary crew. Jon Niccum, a co-executive producer on the film, speaks to Finn's role in the story:
"I remember early on the question was, 'What is Finn's role in this?' Should it be accentuated? Should it be downplayed? And I was always an advocate of 'He's our lens into this story. Anything with Finn is good because we're all kind of outsiders looking into this documentary, and that's what Finn is. And so the more of him, the more I feel the audience can get involved with the story."
Eric Meyer, being at the center of the whole story, naturally has the most perspective regarding the raids and the events afterwards. So it was a welcome surprise when he walked on stage to be part of the post-screening Q&A. The whole panel was asked about what revolution means to them. Discussions were had between panelists about the current political climate and how journalism can play a part in fighting back against the powers that be.
"There are a lot of places that aren't speaking truth to power but by god, it's going to happen here." - Eric Meyer
Right after the Q and A, I was lucky enough to grab Eric for a couple of questions on the way out.
How do you think this film will have an effect on local and global journalism?
"'I don't know' is really the answer to that question. I would hope that it would make not journalists change their behavior, although they could certainly not fold as easy as they have. Attention Paramount. Attention 60 Minutes. Attention a few others. I think it's more likely to have an effect on the people who do stuff to journalists. So maybe it'll make them think twice. But that's not necessarily how things work these days."
Are there other stories like this that should be told?
"Oh there are dozens of stories like this. One of the things I've found out, going around doing a lot of speaking, people tell me, "Something kinda like what happened to you happened to us. But y'know, nobody knows about it." [...] One of the things we won was the Maria Ressa award. Maria Ressa, Nobel Prize winner – I had dinner with her. She was watching [Marion County] from Manila, and she said, "We expect things like this to happen in the Philippines. We look to the United States and think this is where it shouldn't happen."
The theme of this year's Free State Fest was revolution, and Seized exemplifies this theme extraordinarily well. As the Marion County Record's first headline after the raid says, "We might be seized... But will never be silenced."
