Top festival selects feature-lengthy raid documentary
Staff writer
“Seized,” the feature-length documentary that Herizon Productions has been working on since the raid Aug. 11, 2023, on the Record newsroom, has been selected to have its formal premiere next month at the prestigious Sundance film festival.
Only 10 U.S. documentaries are selected annually for screening at the festival, founded by actor Robert Redford.
In selecting the 90-minute film, directed by Sharon Liese, Sundance offered this review:
“When the small town of Marion, Kansas, is thrust into the international spotlight after a police raid on the Marion County Record and the death of its 98-year-old co-owner, a fierce debate ignites about the abuse of power, journalistic ethics, local journalism, and the United States Constitution.
“In politically turbulent times, existential tumult can coalesce into an overwhelming storm. Like lightning in a bottle, director Sharon Liese captures the story of the Marion County Record raid, a perfectly illustrative microcosm of the moment.
“The specificity of this story, its lively and distinctive players, and its weighty ethical and democratic consequences make not only for a gripping watch, but an orienting, sobering, grounding experience amidst an onslaught of state overreach, press suppression, and threats to journalism as we know it.
“Diligent storytelling, kaleidoscopic perspectives, rich context, and generosity in allowing its audience to reach their own conclusions make ‘Seized’ an excellent antidote to the threats it so potently captures.
“Liese returns to the Sundance Film Festival with this crucial contribution to journalistic discourse.”
Festival publicity for the film shows the Record being read by Marion barber Martin Bina.
The film will have its premier at 5:45 p.m. Jan. 25 at the festival headquarters in the resort community of Park City, Utah.
It will be repeated in at least four additional theaters in Park City and Salt Lake City through Jan. 31 and will be available online to the public (though most tickets already are sold out) and to credentialed press and industry personnel Jan. 28 to Feb. 1.
Liese and her fellow producers, Sasha Albert and Paul Matyasovsky, have led large crews to Marion countless times, including just last week, when Matyasovsky and crew spent most of a day gathering final audio and video materials.
Preliminary “cuts” of the film have been shown to multiple test audiences in Hollywood and New York, and negotiations have been under way with major industry groups and streaming services to obtain rights to the film.
The Record has no editorial control over or financial stake in the film.