A 2023 police raid on the Marion County Record, a small-town weekly newspaper, ignites a fierce debate about freedom of the press, bringing national and international attention to the tiny rural community of Marion, Kansas. Joan Meyer, the 98-year-old co-owner of the paper with her son, Eric Meyer, died one day after experiencing the emotional trauma of the raid. The Sundance Institute called it, “a must-see documentary about a small-town crisis.”​

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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.

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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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Cosponsored by the Times Union, University at Albany Alumni Association, and the Journalism Program of the University at Albany Department of Communication.