Raid documentary premieres to rave reviews

“Seized,” Emmy-winning director Sharon Liese’s documentary about Marion and a disavowed 2023 police raid, premiered to rave reviews and sold-out audiences this week.

The 94-minute film was shown to packed theaters at the Sundance Film Festival, founded by actor Robert Redford in the resort community of Park City, Utah.

The film was critically praised as a “riveting” look at the disavowed police raid on the Marion County Record and two homes.

Reviewers termed it a “chilling case study” and a well-researched, patient, and observatory piece that serves as a microcosm for the erosion of press freedom nationwide.

It was described as a strong contender for winning the annual festival’s coveted award as best documentary feature.

In its review, the Hollywood Reporter emphasized the movie’s “compelling principle.”

“Liese shows both sides of the raid,” critic Daniel Fienberg writes in his review.

He terms Record editor Eric Meyer “belligerent” during the raid; 98-year-old newspaper co-owner Joan Meyer, who died of stress the next day, as “feisty”; and law enforcement officers as “generally supercilious.”

“The early part of the documentary teases that the story we thought we knew was only one part,” Fienberg writes. “A small group of townspeople suggest that Eric Meyer and the paper aren’t ideal candidates to be widely celebrated as champions of the First Amendment.”

But, Fienberg goes on, early parts of the film, suggesting that police should be exonerated, are a “straw-man argument” in Liese’s “two-sides-to-every-story approach.”

“When townspeople announce their contempt for Meyer and the paper,” he writes, “it’s for parochial and normal things. The paper is critical of institutions! The paper prints police reports with names! In one editorial, Meyer made fun of the grammar in local kids’ letters to Santa!”

 The actual editorial sadly pointed out how lack of in-person classes during COVID-19 had taken a toll on learning.

“The doc captures a town with a complicated relationship with its newspaper,” Fienberg writes. “None of it sets up a justification for the law enforcement actions, nor at this point is anybody prepared to defend any aspect of the warrant or raid. One bitter officer [fire investigator Chris Mercer] show annoyance at being blamed for the death of a 98-year-old woman.”

In the only mixed review of the film, Fienberg questions some of the film’s structure but makes a clear conclusion.

“Maybe Eric Meyer and the Marion County Record are imperfect vehicles for First Amendment hagiography,” he writes, “but isn’t that what makes them perfect? The First Amendment is there to protect, not to protect the perfect, and maybe an imperfect documentary makes that point as well as a perfect one.”

Other reviews were more praising of Liese’s work.

Writing for “The Playlist,” critic Brian Farvour termed it “a poignant examination of how the First Amendment can be trampled — and how to fight back.”

“Despite the undeniable small-town nature and overall vibe of Marion,” Farvour writes, “its newspaper never shied away from the truth.”

Farvour terms “the well-spoken Eric 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,” he writes.

He goes on to explain the movie role of New Yorker Finn Harnett, who joined the Record staff for a one-year fellowship a year after the raid, as “an interesting thread.”

“What’s a perfect audience for ‘Seized’?” Farvour rhetorically asks. “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.”

MovieMaker writer Tim Molloy says the film “does an amazing job of explaining the very intricate small-town drama and grudges that led to this raid on a local newspaper.”

Writing for NextBestPicture, critic Ema Sasic terms “Seized” a “riveting documentary about the power of the press and standing up to bullies, and at the same time, a hilariously bitchy tale about the characters you might find in small towns.”

She goes on to write that the film “ strikes a perfect balance between centering its story on such a specific and wild case while also speaking to broader issues that are impacting news organizations everywhere.’

“With drama, scandals, and plenty of whimsical people,” she writes, “it’s a documentary that must be watched.”

Writing that the “newspaper staff is not one to mess with,” she describes as “truly juicy” the “deep-rooted tale full of conspiracies, entanglements, and pettiness that Liese presents.”

“The Marion County Record’s editor, Eric, is an absolute hoot,” she writes. “He is a classic newsman in the sense that he is committed to telling the truth, and he doesn’t care whose feelings he might hurt in the process….

“‘Seized’ is a champion for the little guys and shows that they’re just as willing to fight for the truth as anyone else. It also sends a clear message that freedom of the press is a constitutional right, and there are still journalists like Eric who take that to heart with every story they pursue.”

She also lauds Harnett’s role in the film.

“It’s a wonderful inclusion in this film because viewers get to see what this often misunderstood job consists of,” she writes. “But Finn takes it in great strides, and his moments with Eric and the other veteran news staffers are so sweet as they take him under their wings.”

Her review concludes: “Picking on the little guys doesn’t always mean it’ll be an easy fight, especially when you’ve got dedicated, savvy, and, most important of all, sassy journalists involved.”

Writing for POV, critic Courtney Small begins:

“Once universally viewed as agents performing a vital tool to inform and empower people via evidence-based facts, journalists have moved from unsung heroes to villains in some people’s eyes.

“Instead of praising their ability to hold those in charge accountable, they are chastised for not bending to the will of powers they challenge.

“One needs to look no further than Sharon Liese’s documentary ‘Seized’ to find a perfect microcosm of this shift.”

Terming Marion “quaint” and comparing some of its drama to that of a soap opera, Small writes that international attention given to the raid “irked those in the community who didn’t think that employees at the paper were the innocent victims they claimed to be.”

“Their resentment only grew as Meyer’s story became an award-winning symbol for why journalism needed to be protected at all costs,” she writes. “The fact that some people in Marion don’t seem bothered by the misuse of trust by officials is chilling….

“Preferring their news to be spoon-fed with some uplifting sweetness, some of the townsfolk that Liese speaks with are far more concerned with their grudges against Meyer than with the ramifications of the raid itself.”

She lauds Hartnett’s role in explaining this, quoting him as saying in the movie that “people aren’t used to newspapers these days,” adding that “stringent journalism standards have become off-putting, and a softer approach is preferred in a place where everyone knows one another.”

Included was a scene in which Mayor Mike Powers quickly walks away to avoid being introduced to Hartnett.

“While [Hartnett] is quick to warn the mayor of the conflict of interest that comes with journalist being the PR mouthpieces for those in authority, as the mayor believes that local papers should work in conjunction with the city council, the young man finds it difficult to navigate a space where he is viewed as the villain in the locals’ eyes,” Small writes.

Small concludes:

“Although Meyer’s edges may be coarse, Liese’s film does see the diamond buried in his stony bravado. His colleagues frequently note that he is a kind soul at heart, whose passion for the integrity of his institution remains unwavering in the face of corruptions.

“Meyer is a man who harkens back to a time when journalists sacrificed everything but their reputations to get a story right. In a world where crystal-clear truths are being fogged by deceit and systematic abuse of power, journalists of his and his colleagues’ ilk are needed more than ever.

“‘Seized’ is a poignant reminder that in times when fear and manipulation are used to keep us silent, it is important that journalists continue to speak truth to power.”

Meyer and Hartnett both were present for the film’s premiere Sunday. Meyer received a standing ovation from the audience when introduced for a panel discussion afterward.