What’s the cost when corrupt local officials target community journalism?

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Join us for a free screening of the acclaimed new documentary “Seized," followed by a panel discussion.​​

About “Seized”

A 2023 police raid on the Marion County Record, a small-town weekly newspaper, sparks a fierce debate about press freedom and brings national and international attention to a tight-knit Kansas community.

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Joan Meyer, the newspaper’s 98-year-old co-owner, died one day after experiencing the emotional trauma of the raid. The Sundance Institute named Seized a “must-see documentary about a small-town crisis.” 

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Panel moderator:

Kimberly Gilmore is Chief Historian and Senior Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility at The HISTORY Channel/A+E Global Media. She oversees a wide range of historical content as well as public outreach initiatives including the Save Our History preservation campaign. She has also produced videos for historic sites nationwide including the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and the Statue of Liberty. She serves on the board of the New York State Archives Partnership Trust and the committee of scholars for the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum. Gilmore received her Ph.D. in American history from New York University in 2005

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Panelists:

Sharon Liese, filmmaker and UAlbany alum (Class of 1981), co-directed the Emmy Award-winning short documentary, "The Flagmakers" (2022) with Cynthia Wade. The film, screened at the Albany Film Festival in 2025, is a meditation on the 21st century American Dream. It tells story of immigrant and refugee employees at the largest American flag factory in the nation. Her other films include "Transhood" (2020), which aired on HBO; and "The Gnomist" (2015), nominated for Best Documentary Short at Tribeca.

​​She is also the creator of multiple documentary series on various platforms, including "Pink Collar Crimes" (CBS), "High School Confidential" (WeTV), and "Let Us Prey: A Ministry of Scandals" (Starz).

 

Eric Meyer, publisher of the Marion County Record, began working at the paper in the fifth grade, and purchased it together with his parents in 1998. An associate professor of Journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he served formerly as associate dean of the university's College of Media.

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Sasha Alpert is a three-time Emmy Award-winning producer with significant experience in both documentaries and unscripted television. She was last at Sundance in 2013 with VALENTINE ROAD (HBO). Alpert produced AUTISM: THE SEQUEL (HBO), which revisits the subjects of the Oscar shortlisted AUTISM: THE MUSICAL (HBO) which she also produced. Additionally, she produced TRANSHOOD (HBO), which won the Audience Award at the AFI Festival. Prior to that, she produced THEY CALL US MONSTERS (PBS/Netflix) and SHADOW BILLIONAIRE (MSNBC). As an executive at Bunim/Murray Productions, she created and managed two award-winning divisions. She recently founded her own company - Hope Street Projects.

 

Paul Matyasovsky is a producer with over 15 years of experience in non-fiction storytelling. Paul has produced 20 seasons of National Geographic’s unscripted series Wicked Tuna and its spin-off, Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks, as well as other docu-reality hits like Ghost Hunters, and Stone Cold Takes on America. He also co-produced the 2020 independent documentary, THE HOUSE IN BETWEEN, about unexplained phenomena in a small Mississippi town and consulted on Sharon Liese’s film, PARKER, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023.
 

​​Presented by George Hearst III, publisher and CEO of Times Union and executive producer of “Seized." Cosponsored by the Times Union, University at Albany Alumni Association, and the Journalism Program of the University at Albany Department of Communication.