E69 • When the Story Becomes the Evidence • SHARON LIESE, dir. of ‘Seized’ at Sundance

Sharon Liese joins the show after premiering Seized at Sundance to unpack the story behind the Marion, Kansas newspaper raid that ignited a national debate around press freedom, abuse of power, and the fragility of the First Amendment. What begins as an egregious police search of a small-town newsroom expands into a layered portrait of community tension, history, ego, and how something unthinkable can happen in a place that looks quiet on the surface. The film moves beyond headlines into character, contradiction, and the uncomfortable gray areas that fueled the raid.

We dig into craft and access: how Liese drove two hours the moment she heard the news on NPR, earned trust without a formal agreement for months, and built a film out of surveillance footage, body cams, courtroom material, and intimate interviews. She talks about structuring the story around a one-year time jump, using a young reporter as an audience surrogate, shaping tone so viewers can register the absurdity without losing the stakes, and making the call to abandon fourth-wall devices in favor of a cleaner, more immersive approach.

She shares the films that informed her thinking during the edit, including All the President’s Men and the investigative restraint of Laura Poitras’ Citizenfour and Cover Up. Sharon reflects on what it meant to launch the film at Sundance amid both celebration and uncertainty in the documentary market. Advice to filmmakers: there are no shortcuts. Put in the hours, earn trust slowly, and keep showing up until the experience begins to live inside the work.

This episode is brought to you by BeastGrip. When you're filming on your phone and need something solid, modular, and built for real productions - including 28 Years Later and Left Handed Girl - BeastGrip's rigs, lenses, and accessories are designed to hold up without slowing you down. 

If you're ready to level up your mobile workflow, visit BeastGrip.com and use coupon code PASTPRESENTFEATURE for 10 % off. 

Revival Hub is your guide to specialty screenings in Los Angeles - classics on 35mm, director Q&As, rare restorations, and indie gems you won't find on streaming. We connect moviegoers with over 200 venues across LA, from the major revival houses to the 20-seat microcinemas and more.

Visit revivalhub.com to see what's playing this week. 

Introducing the Past Present Feature Film Festival, a new showcase celebrating cinematic storytelling across time. From bold proof of concept shorts to stand out new films lighting up the circuit, to overlooked features that deserve another look. 

Sponsored by the Past Present Feature podcast and Leica Camera. Submit now at filmfreeway.com/PastPresentFeature

Transcript

Marcus Mizelle (00:21)

Sharon Lees joins the show after premiering Seized at Sundance to impact the story behind the Marion, Kansas newspaper raid that ignited a national debate around press freedom, abuse of power, and the fragility of the First Amendment. What begins as an egregious police search of a small town newsroom expands into a layered portrait of community tension, history, ego, and how something unthinkable can happen in a place that looks quiet on the surface.

The film moves beyond headlines into character, contradiction, and the uncomfortable gray areas that fueled the raid. We dig into craft and access, how two hours the moment she heard the news on NPR, earned trust without a formal agreement from Muntz, and built a film out of surveillance footage, body material,

and intimate interviews. She talks about structuring the story around a one-year time using a young reporter as an audience surrogate, shaping tone so viewers can register the absurdity without losing the stakes, and making the call to abandon fourth-wall devices in favor of a cleaner, more immersive approach. She shares the films that informed her thinking during the edit, including All the President's Men and the investigative restraint of Laura Poitras' Citizen Four and Cover Up.

She also reflects on what it meant to launch the film at Sundance amid both celebration and uncertainty in the documentary market. Advice to filmmakers, are no shortcuts. Put in the hours, earn trust slowly, And keep showing up until the experience begins to live inside the work.

Sharon Liese (01:43)

I just started Googling you before we got on and I was just wondering like how you started this and

Marcus Mizelle (01:46)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, that's very nice of you. Well, you know what I was, I've always felt like I've lacked a network, proper network. And then was at the Berlin Film Festival in 22, a week before COVID happened.

Sharon Liese (01:50)

Bye.

Marcus Mizelle (02:00)

We went to this filmmaker brunch and I had this wonderful, memorable two hour time talking to all these filmmakers and just, was like this like total craft driven engagement. And I had never really quite experienced anything like that here. And so that was part of it. And then just so social, just a very social person, honestly. yeah. ⁓

Sharon Liese (02:21)

Great. It's great for

a filmmaker.

Marcus Mizelle (02:23)

So it kind of just like all converged to where I couldn't take it anymore. And I'm like, fine. I'll do a podcast, you know, and just shit in the whole kind of imposter syndrome, why does the world need another podcast? And then it's like, fine, I'll do it. And then it just became this thing. Really, it's the podcast that I wish existed, but didn't. So I'm like, let me make it meaning like specifically talking to filmmakers at the, around the festival circuit. I just thought it was like a

I would listen to that all day long, you know, so that's how it kind of happened, I guess.

Sharon Liese (02:49)

Yeah,

I think it's great that you're doing it. Maybe you're like channeling Mark Maron a little bit and you'll just be the new film festival, like.

Marcus Mizelle (02:53)

Well, thank you.

Look!

That's my guy. I love that.

That's my favorite podcast. So it's funny you say that.

Sharon Liese (03:03)

or was your favorite podcast ring?

Marcus Mizelle (03:04)

I know,

well he's got like five or what, 2,000 episodes, so I guess you could pretend like it's forever. But it just hit a stream of consciousness, and his kinda like, I don't know, carefree, hard on the shoulder, hard on the sleeve thing. I feel like I subconsciously try to just not make it be so serious. But yeah, thank you for asking.

Sharon Liese (03:11)

No!

Yeah.

Well, congrats.

Congrats on doing this.

Marcus Mizelle (03:28)

I appreciate it. I'm just trying to make sure I don't... It's a line between where it becomes too much time and energy spent and then I'm not making films, you know? So I'm just trying to manage that bandwidth. Which I think, you know, just consistency and just getting it out. That's why we don't do a lot of video because I just can't... I don't have the time to do that. You know? But anyways... How was your Sundance?

Sharon Liese (03:48)

Absolutely.

It was great, it was great. ⁓ Even if you don't have a film there, it's exhausting. ⁓ But when you do have a film there, it's even more exhilarating. So I would say I'm exhausted from it and exhilarated. So it ⁓ was wonderful. It's fun. What an honor and it's a privilege to have your film premiere at Sundance.

Marcus Mizelle (03:58)

Mm-hmm. I've been one time.

Nice and.

Sharon Liese (04:18)

How could it be bad?

Marcus Mizelle (04:20)

Right? Yeah. I mean, was what, it ended a week, no, less than a week ago, I feel like.

Sharon Liese (04:25)

I lost all track of time being there. I came back, I thought it was the wrong day for five days, I think.

Marcus Mizelle (04:30)

feel

like that's been my last five years, six years. What year is it really? ⁓ Seized when 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 abuse of power, journalism and the US constitution. So yeah, seems relevant at the moment, very much so. Our amendments are just getting...

Sharon Liese (04:33)

Yeah, COVID kind of did that too.

Yeah, a little bit.

Marcus Mizelle (04:57)

throwing out the window these days. So yeah, what is the First Amendment for people that don't know?

Sharon Liese (05:02)

my gosh, are you going to make me do the legal stuff? Yeah. So the, yeah, the first amendment has to do with ⁓ freedom of speech and, and, the freedom of the press ⁓ and also religion and stuff like that. But for, but it was, you know, the, the attack on freedom of speech and freedom of the press, basically when these raids occurred.

Marcus Mizelle (05:05)

Just a brief little thing or I can look it up too, you know.

Sharon Liese (05:31)

And ⁓ it was also an illegal or could be considered an illegal search and seizure, which is what we are supposed to be protected from by the Fourth Amendment.

So there's that. Yeah, there's that. And then there's ⁓ maybe, you know, throw in a little abuse of power and questionable policing.

Marcus Mizelle (05:42)

yeah, that thing.

Mm-hmm.

Sharon Liese (05:51)

So, ⁓ and I don't know, did you, have you seen the film? Have you been able to? Okay, okay, because one of the.

Marcus Mizelle (05:55)

No, I have not. No, no, no, no. But you know what? I

kind of like that. Sometimes it's fun. It's kind of more fun. And there's something, I can't put my finger on it, but sometimes it's not a bad thing that I haven't seen the film before talking to the filmmaker. Because maybe I'm not putting my take on it as much if I had seen it. I don't know. But it doesn't seem to really hurt the interviews. But you know, it's also brand spanking new, right? mean...

Sharon Liese (06:08)

Yeah.

It is,

it is, it is. ⁓ Yeah, and the reason I ask that is because the film is not what you expect it to be. You know, I think some people, know, when, when as the way you described it, as we describe it, you know, being about this egregious attack on the first amendment and the fourth amendment, it's, ⁓ that is in there, but it's also a look at small town America and how things are happening in small

Marcus Mizelle (06:26)

Okay.

my gosh.

Sharon Liese (06:47)

in Small Town America and there's some very colorful and interesting characters that you run into in the film. at Sundance, the audiences were, really got the humor that we sort of were carefully putting into the film. ⁓ so it's entertaining. So you get a little bit of the broccoli that you need to have, but there's a lot of entertainment in it.

Marcus Mizelle (07:14)

Mmm.

Yeah, I mean it's like you don't want to just be bopped over the head with information, right? It's like, okay, you're preaching to me. It's like, no, you need more than Okay, let's go back to the beginning of this. Let's go back to you, actually, the origin of you as a filmmaker. Can you tell me something about that? Like, what's your first memory of being a filmmaker?

Sharon Liese (07:32)

Well, I didn't know I would get into filmmaking for many years. was kind of a late career decision. I do recall, because I've been asked this question, that when I was in high school, I did do a, there was an English project, was an English media class. And ⁓ I had a Super 8 camera, and ⁓ I did a film about autumn.

to a song called Autumn by I believe Edgar Winner. So, and I had a cassette player and a Super 8 camera and I had to make the thing sync. And so when I showed it, I had to have the audio and the video sync at the same time. So that was my first attempt. ⁓ And then after I went to college for more marketing communications, I also got an MBA and

Marcus Mizelle (08:05)

Okay, okay.

Nice.

Sharon Liese (08:30)

And ⁓ I had a marketing communications company and I started ⁓ doing things for clients that had to do with storytelling. And ⁓ I started doing these promotional stories, ⁓ promotional emotional stories, and I realized that I really liked that aspect of what I was doing. And ⁓ at that time, ⁓ my daughter was entering high school and I just

thought about how interesting it might be to follow her, which did not happen, but to follow her friends did happen. And so I followed them, I followed the ⁓ colleagues in her class ⁓ for all four years of their high school experience. And then it became my first project and it was a series, documentary series on WE TV. And it was an.

an eight part series and I followed 12 girls through high school for all four years. it was, and I loved it and ⁓ it got a lot of attention and ⁓ really brought me into wanting to stay a filmmaker.

Marcus Mizelle (09:41)

So it's like a time capsule type film where it's just a four year almost look in, check in every,

Sharon Liese (09:45)

Yeah,

it's a longitudinal look at girls going through high school from 13 to 18 years

Marcus Mizelle (09:53)

Some movies just work, just the time capsule element of it all, right? I mean, I'm sure there's more to it than that, but just what time travel you can kind of experience as a viewer, whenever you put, four years inside of what, how long was that, an hour and a half?

Sharon Liese (10:06)

Well, was probably ended up, I think they were hour episodes and I did eight. So it was, yeah, probably six and a half hours.

Marcus Mizelle (10:11)

Okay.

I guess boyhood kind

of comes to mind as far as just seeing so much change in a short amount of time where we can't experience that in real life.

Sharon Liese (10:22)

And I love that. I love that. ⁓ then I did a film. I did a few other things. And then I did ⁓ a film called Transhood that was on HBO or is on HBO. And I followed four kiddos who are non-binary and trans in Kansas City for five years.

Marcus Mizelle (10:45)

wow, okay.

Sharon Liese (10:47)

Yeah, and then I had them, and they were at different ages, like starting at four, seven, and nine, and 12, and then I followed them for five years. ⁓ So that was another type of longitudinal. I don't do a lot of short projects.

Marcus Mizelle (11:05)

You know, I've been filming this, I don't know what I'm doing or if it's going to be worth my time, but I have a neighbor across the street. I have two neighbors across the street. They share a curb and a hedge. They don't really talk to each other. One's a liberal and one's a Trump supporter. I'm in Los Angeles too. It's kind of crazy, but I've been filming them every now and then every few months or so since the election. And I'm basically just filming them both through this term.

And not to be too political, but I guess just more about the kind of time capsule. What'd you call it? Longitude? Longitudinal?

Sharon Liese (11:34)

Yeah, like

a longitudinal look.

Marcus Mizelle (11:37)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I don't know what the hell I'm doing or if it's pointless or not, what, that concept?

Sharon Liese (11:42)

I think it's amazing what you're doing.

I love what you're, yeah, I love the concept. And I don't know what you're calling it, but sharing a curb and a hedge is kind of a good new.

Marcus Mizelle (11:50)

Well, right now the working title is Election 24.

Oh, wait, what was it? What was it?

Sharon Liese (11:55)

what you just said, sharing a curb and a hedge.

Marcus Mizelle (11:57)

Yeah, you know, because the bottom line is

Sharon Liese (11:59)

Like that's

indisputable. That's indisputable. And then you move from that and you start getting into the gray areas of what they share.

Marcus Mizelle (12:07)

And it's just and there's so much kind of ⁓ weird wild kind of accidental things where it's like One drives a red car or one drives a red Tesla one drives a blue Toyota, you know, it's like what anyways, but ⁓ but I'm just like ⁓ I'm trying to figure out I'm kind of it's like a back burner project But ⁓ but yeah, no, I think just you know that the longitudinal the time capsule stuff. It's just like

I think it could be interesting in that way, where you're seeing like election day before the election, then election night, then election result, then one year later, da da da, you know, I there's a power in that.

Sharon Liese (12:40)

Yeah,

I mean, think that's what we like to see. As an audience member, we like to see some sort of transformation. And really, you can only get that with time.

Marcus Mizelle (12:50)

Well, that's what I'm hoping is that the Trump supporter and the, you know, all characters, but I hope that he can go have some sort of arc as opposed to just being like a, which would, I'm not sure how to work with that. But anyways, we don't have to talk too much about that. I'm in the process of that. I'm sure there's only another 15 years with that. Maybe I just film him the rest of his life and see how it affects him, you know, when he's 55, 60.

Sharon Liese (13:05)

that.

Yeah, I think that's great. And interestingly enough, seized does start. We see the inciting event with body cam footage and surveillance footage ⁓ of the raids on the newspaper and the raids on two homes. And then we cut to a year later. So there. We're doing that too.

Marcus Mizelle (13:32)

Okay, wow. Well,

let me ask you this as far as seized. how did this start? mean, how did you, what made you wanna tell the story?

Sharon Liese (13:40)

live in Kansas. I did grow up in New York, but I live in Kansas now, which is whole other podcast. But ⁓ I ⁓ was in my car listening to NPR, as a good citizen does. And I.

that this raid had just occurred in Marion, Kansas. And I'm in a suburb right outside of Kansas City, so I...

Marcus Mizelle (14:07)

Okay, which I was in

Kansas City about six months ago. Cool town. Yeah, just for a little shoot. Yeah, yeah. I was like, whoa, I didn't know what to expect. But I'm like, it's a pretty town. It's a cool town. And it's very interesting, the whole two Kansas cities. Anyways, a whole other conversation.

Sharon Liese (14:11)

really? ⁓ OK.

Yes, I know and everyone

always says which Kansas City you're from. City, Kansas is not as well known as Kansas City, Missouri.

Marcus Mizelle (14:29)

I was like, ooh,

the conflict here. Ooh, the juxtaposition here is very interesting.

Sharon Liese (14:32)

Yeah.

So I was in my car and I heard about these, the raids and I didn't know where Marion, Kansas was. I did come to find out that it was about two hours away from me. But it was shocking what was going on. And then within 24 hours or so, the 98 year old co-owner of the newspaper died.

right after being traumatized by having seven officers in this tiny town raid her house, for her cell phone and looking through the computer and everything else in the house. ⁓ So I was thinking, ⁓ this is something where ⁓ everybody's going to want to do this documentary. Everyone's hearing about this right now, and they're going to want to do it. ⁓

And it wasn't my typical story to tell because as I was mentioning, I did things that start with very intimate stories and where I know who the people are and kind of have an idea of what their story, how interesting and compelling their stories would be as just as characters. And so like when I did Transhood and I did High School Confidential and even when I did the Flagmakers, it started with a place and people. And then I branched out into the...

themes that were very relevant and that you would see going on in the country and important topics to talk about. But so this one I was a little hesitant. But then I kept hearing more and more about it. And then I realized that ⁓ all of their electronic devices had been seized. So other filmmakers weren't able to get a hold of them unless they went there. And I could get there in two hours. So I got in my car. ⁓

Marcus Mizelle (16:14)

Mm, mm-hmm. All right, okay, the proximity, okay.

Sharon Liese (16:19)

So access is key. And so I drove two hours and ⁓ waited ⁓ in line basically with journalists who were waiting to talk to Eric Meyer, the editor, and ⁓ got an audience with him and ⁓ in between his doing interviews and just kept talking to him about what a film would be like and what to expect. And he was kind of on board.

Marcus Mizelle (16:21)

Bam.

Sharon Liese (16:48)

immediately with at least telling the story. He knew he wanted the story to get out there. ⁓

Marcus Mizelle (16:54)

And I'm sure you

had a nice enough track record to where you weren't just some film student. It trust in you as far as, ⁓ she's done some things here.

Sharon Liese (16:58)

⁓ Yes. ⁓ Yes. Yeah. mean, we had

to, yeah, we had to trust each other because he had to trust the story in my hands. ⁓ And, you know, we did not have an agreement, an official agreement for at least six months that, I said, yeah, if I can just start filming and you can get to know me. And he was such a, such a tried and true ⁓ journalist that he said, you know, you got here first, so you get the scoop.

Marcus Mizelle (17:12)

Sure. Yeah, yeah, handshake kind of situation.

Nice, but also you can push people away by having them sign something or be so formal so quickly too, right? Wouldn't you say sometimes in the documentary process? Yeah.

Sharon Liese (17:27)

So.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's

a really precarious situation when you want people to commit to just you telling your story, especially a journalist. Because Eric was like, I want everybody to tell my story. I don't care. I'm going to show it to everybody and tell everybody. And then over time, I had to explain exclusivity, what that meant to a filmmaker and being able to have a viable project.

Marcus Mizelle (17:46)

Mm.

Yeah.

And you're just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

And there's such an interesting kind of strange space between not wanting to push somebody away and lock down their exclusivity, but also making sure that you are protected, going through, you've got to take a little bit of a leap, I feel like, but you got to get something at the end of the day, right? Once you maybe have, you got to get some sort of sign off. ⁓ And do you get like life rights and all that, or do you just do like, hey, I have your permission for this project and we're exclusive to this project? How does that work?

Sharon Liese (18:17)

Definitely. That's right.

Bye.

So I do

have the scripted rights, life rights ⁓ for the project as well and for some of the characters in there. ⁓ I see this as an Adam McKay kind of ⁓ feature scripted film. Because when you see it, you will see the quirkiness of this town and the colorful characters. ⁓ they just stick.

Marcus Mizelle (18:42)

Ooh.

Okay.

How fun. Yeah.

What kind of Adam McKay,

like a big short? The big short type vibes or?

Sharon Liese (18:58)

Yeah,

like where you break the fourth wall and where you just see these characters interacting and that a lot of the story has to do with the tension between the people.

Marcus Mizelle (19:03)

So good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what, was watching some Christopher Guest last night, actually. Just as far as breaking the fourth wall and the quirkiness of it all, and you know, the kind of, ⁓ what was I watching, Best in Show? You know, just like, ⁓ it's so fun to like break through that form, you know, whether it be a fiction piece that's disguised as a documentary or vice versa.

Sharon Liese (19:31)

Yeah, and we played with that quite a bit, but then ultimately did not use it because we had so many other things going on. But because we thought we needed to explain at first the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, Privacy Protection Act, but we found ways to do that ⁓ that were a little bit more on the light side, ⁓ but still being really clear.

Marcus Mizelle (19:38)

Okay.

Okay, did it feel kind of too cute, as far as them, just too superfluous at end of the day, them breaking the fourth wall? Is that why you cut it?

Sharon Liese (20:04)

Yeah, guess it, well, I wasn't sure how it was landing and I knew that it was gonna be a huge investment in production time if we really wanted to lean into it. And so we played with it, I did it like one day of filming, but then I thought, you know, maybe we should have other characters breaking the fourth wall, not just one, and then, you you have to give a little bit more direction and then you're getting outside of,

Marcus Mizelle (20:16)

Mm-hmm.

Sharon Liese (20:33)

documentary in the authenticity if you're having to have people really explain this kind of really important stuff, like the First Amendment. if they didn't say it exactly right, I didn't want to be that prescriptive.

Marcus Mizelle (20:43)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, hand holding.

So was it more of a, I have not seen the film, so is it more of a verite, kind of like not acknowledging the camera type approach? Or was it?

Sharon Liese (20:57)

Well,

for one, we had an extensive amount of body cam and surveillance footage. So it was like a 10-camera shoot in Verite telling the story of the raids. Because Eric Meyer, the editor, not only had surveillance foot cameras in his house where he lived with his mom, and he also had surveillance cameras at the record. And then there were seven.

Marcus Mizelle (21:02)

Sure.

Sharon Liese (21:25)

police officers. And so they all had their body cam and they went to three different locations. And so we have them in their car, we have them talking to each other, have them saying, leaving the scene after this woman is so traumatized, saying, let's talk about this over pizza, guys. ⁓ you know, so there's a lot. then they're kind of Keystone Cop-ish also because they

Marcus Mizelle (21:27)

Dang.

Sharon Liese (21:54)

they're reading Miranda rights when they're not arresting them and then they don't know the Miranda rights. So I mean, it's lots of interesting footage in there. So there's that verite and then we follow a young reporter who starts at the Marion County Record a year after the raid. So through his eyes, we get to see his reaction and his curiosity about what happened and why it happened.

Marcus Mizelle (22:10)

⁓ cool.

Sharon Liese (22:20)

And then.

Marcus Mizelle (22:21)

Because you're always, whenever

you're introducing a, whenever you're telling a story through a character who's also new to the situation, it's almost like the audience and he or she are together, right? Kind of thing. It's a good device. Yeah. It's not like, hey audience, this is for you. It's like, no, this is for the character that you're watching, but also kind of the same thing, you know? Yeah, yeah.

Sharon Liese (22:29)

Yes, exactly. Yeah, yeah, Yep.

Right, right, right, right. that's what

⁓ we're, that we, you know, I'm seeing in the reviews and what people said after they, after they saw the film that they really, ⁓ that that's how they saw him. It's kind of a surrogate for them.

Marcus Mizelle (22:50)

These are the devices that really seem to work. This is the film language, the storytelling language that really does – that is effective for a viewer because you don't want to hold the hand, but you still want to get across certain things. I want to see this movie. Wait, so do you have talking heads? Do you have people looking and acknowledging the camera at all? Or is it straight kind of like the movie Collective, the Romanian journalist?

Sharon Liese (23:03)

Yeah.

⁓ so

there's definite verite, fly on the wall kinds of stuff. And then we have ⁓ some pretty intimate, extensive interviews that help to explain along the way, and some that are really emotional. it's all like, Derek Boonstra was the editor for this, and ⁓ he's just brilliant. And he really helped with

Marcus Mizelle (23:22)

Okay.

Sharon Liese (23:38)

putting together and intercutting all this body cam footage, surveillance footage. We also had graphics and then we had some of interviews and we were also telling the story of what happened from a year later, like through ⁓ courtroom footage and because there's a trial and there are lawsuits. it's also, I mean, I feel like it goes pretty quick and that's what we've...

Marcus Mizelle (23:56)

Mm-hmm.

Sharon Liese (24:06)

or the feedback that we've gotten because there's so many things happening. And I think the interviews only ⁓ service the story, the verite that's happening.

Marcus Mizelle (24:17)

Got you, got you.

Sharon Liese (24:18)

going to be at True False in a couple weeks, if you're going to go there.

Marcus Mizelle (24:20)

you are? nice.

So Sunnys is your world premiere. Where's your world premiere? Didn't you have True Faults? That's great. so I mean what else is coming up? What's the future look like for this film beyond? Do you have any distribution lined up? you been talking to folks? But you sound close. Your tone.

Sharon Liese (24:23)

Yes. Yep.

Not yet, but there is,

there's some interest and it's exciting, but you never know. You never know, especially these days. It's not easy.

Marcus Mizelle (24:41)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well,

can we talk a little bit about the doc space these days, as far as the market standpoint, know, distribution and all this?

It's very difficult. It's like, what is a good deal these days is my question. What is a good deal? Whether it be with a production studio or distributor, you know, like what is the goal is to answer that. It's a second question. What is your goal that determines? And my goal is to get as many people seeing it as possible.

Sharon Liese (25:04)

⁓ boy.

I mean, that is

Marcus Mizelle (25:08)

chances do you take and you know what I mean? But also I don't want to just go to

a medium-high festival. I want to go to the top, you know, and you need to be with the right team, I feel like, to increase your chances with them.

Sharon Liese (25:18)

Yeah,

yes, yes, yes, yes. It's all about ⁓ what you can leverage, I think, and what you can live with. ⁓ It's not a good idea to sign an agreement that you don't feel good about. And the lawyers will say, if everybody feels like they gave a little too much, then maybe it's a good deal. But everybody's gotta feel that way on all sides.

Marcus Mizelle (25:46)

⁓ yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I understand it's a give and take. But it's also just like, what is the alternative

I've already done it on my own and I saw how far I can get and it was cool but I'm like, I want more, you know what I mean? And also I don't have the relationships exactly, I don't have the track record exactly where I need to break through and I'm also thinking about next projects. Do you know what I mean? It's a weird thing. It's a weird thing. I'm just thinking about career and me and social cache of it all, you know, ⁓ because you have the film.

Sharon Liese (26:08)

Yes, absolutely.

Marcus Mizelle (26:16)

And then you have different versions of the film that could be better, but you also have the perception and the perceived value of the film, right? ⁓ that's a lot of people just think something's more valuable because it's in XYZ Festival or its own XYZ platform, you know, just what it is. So.

Sharon Liese (26:32)

Yeah, I know.

I know. Well, was interesting for my film. ⁓ I kept thinking that I needed to attach, attach, attach auspices, you know? And I didn't. And then at one point, there was a very high profile, very visible, let's see, attachment that came my way. And then they decided that.

Then they decided that they didn't want to attach. And the day that my agent called me to tell me that they declined, I said, well, that's OK, because I just got in Sundance today. And he said, he goes, let me give them a call. I go, please don't. Please don't.

Marcus Mizelle (27:03)

Ugh.

love that.

Just take a moment of silence For that person's bad mistake Good for you. Gosh Thank gosh. I mean, that's a good that's some good timing right there That's some good old timing right there, right? Cuz you would have been probably down like all of us And if you didn't have that Sundance crutch not crutch at all But like that Sundance to prop you up cuz what else do you you're in the Sundance? Like what else would you have needed?

Sharon Liese (27:22)

Yeah, it was a good moment. It was an interesting moment.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (27:41)

you made to the promised land, would you have needed that attachment?

Sharon Liese (27:43)

Right, and that's one of the things I was

hoping, yeah, that I would, if I had someone else attached. So, you know, sometimes, sometimes they're not.

Marcus Mizelle (27:50)

they gave up. Why?

Why do they decide not to?

Sharon Liese (27:53)

⁓ You know, they never really give you a good reason.

Marcus Mizelle (27:56)

They never give you a sound.

Sharon Liese (27:57)

I mean, they never give you a reason that you can say, ⁓ I see. It's always, you know, it's such a good project. It's got our sensibility. And then you're like, really? OK.

Marcus Mizelle (28:02)

And then I'm like, no, I need a real reason. I'm like one of those people.

But it's also like they committed and then they committed, is that what it was? Okay, okay, they were interested, okay.

Sharon Liese (28:13)

Well, they didn't commit. They were just

signaling that they were very interested.

Marcus Mizelle (28:19)

Sure. All right. Do you think if they would have known you gotten into Sundance, they wouldn't have, they would have committed?

Sharon Liese (28:25)

I don't know. I do know that my agent wanted to call them to see if maybe they wanted to change their mind, and I didn't want to know.

Marcus Mizelle (28:26)

Hmm?

Got you. Yeah, okay, okay, got you. Well, that's cool. I like that story a lot. you know, let's go back to production real quick. What is like the most challenging moment during production?

Sharon Liese (28:42)

⁓ In this particular production, I would say ⁓ one of the biggest challenges and hurdles that ⁓ we encountered was that the town, we have the paper on board, and we knew that they wanted to tell the story. ⁓ But there were these people in town that for at least a year would not go on camera, but would

would continually stop us on the street or when we were filming and say, you know, there's another side to this story. You haven't heard it yet. And you really need to know. And we would say, tell us. And they were ⁓ very reluctant to talk to us. And so that was a big hurdle that we had to overcome. And it took a year. We finally sat down with the mayor. And we dispelled myths like.

Marcus Mizelle (29:19)

Hmm.

Sharon Liese (29:40)

The paper hired us to do a documentary about them and that we were, yeah, and that all that we did, that we were not interested in hearing other perspectives. And so when we sat down with the mayor and especially one of our, producer, Paul Matysowski became very ⁓ close with the mayor in terms of, you know, talking about what we were doing and really kind of.

Marcus Mizelle (29:45)

presumptions.

Sharon Liese (30:07)

let him see that we were, we really wanted to tell a full view of what had happened there and why it happened and how it could happen in a small town. And once the mayor understood that and really started to trust us, he brought other people into the fold so that they would do, they would do interviews as well. And so then we got this panoramic view of what these raids, why these raids occurred, because it wasn't as simple as

Marcus Mizelle (30:14)

Hmm.

Love that.

Sharon Liese (30:37)

the paper did, that the police thought the paper did something wrong.

Marcus Mizelle (30:42)

Yeah, can we talk about why they did it then without spoiling it or should we bypass?

Sharon Liese (30:46)

Well,

⁓ it's not even a spoiler kind of thing. It's more of a, need 90 minutes to understand how this happened because it was so inexplicable. ⁓ When you boil it down to what really happened, it's like, what? That's why they, that's why.

Marcus Mizelle (30:55)

Sure, fair enough, fair enough.

Yeah, okay.

So is it based on,

is that more presumption that I'm sensing based from someone that then led them to an action?

Sharon Liese (31:13)

⁓ well, there were lots of people involved with lots of different motives. And so you could pin it on this person. You could pin it on that reason. You could pin it on lots of different things. You could go back to, in history, the relationship between the paper and the community and the tension that was festering for years. Or it could be this cop that just came to Marion, Kansas, that wasn't vetted properly. ⁓

Marcus Mizelle (31:17)

You're welcome.

Mmm.

Sharon Liese (31:42)

maybe had a girlfriend he wanted to impress. So there were all these different reasons why it really happened. ⁓ so those are explored in the documentary.

Marcus Mizelle (31:45)

Okay, just, yeah.

Got you, okay. Were you editing while you were shooting? Of course you were, right? ⁓ Back and forth? Yeah.

Sharon Liese (31:58)

We were. We

filmed for a year and a half and then started editing. then we were doing, yeah, we were like, you know, changing the tires as the car was moving. Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (32:09)

We need this, we need to go back to that, da da da. Changing the tires,

I've never heard that, that's good. Yeah, checking the oil.

Sharon Liese (32:16)

So yeah, we were editing and so then we would send, yeah, and then even we got one of the most important powerful interviews from one of the cops that was involved in the raid ⁓ in October. I mean, we already submitted our film to Sundance and we got this next interview and we're like, boy, should we do it? mean, Paul was talking to this.

Marcus Mizelle (32:32)

wow. Oof.

Sharon Liese (32:42)

officer and I was like, I don't know that I want we want to really change what we have in there and then we were like, well, we have committed to listening to all the people who want to talk to us. This is someone we should talk to. ⁓ it was, it was an amazing addition and it comes early on and ⁓ it almost appears. I mean, I didn't realize this, but it did appear like he talked to us very early on because of where we placed it in the edit.

Marcus Mizelle (32:54)

Wow. And you think it helped?

Mmm. Got you. Got you. Got you. Cool. And then Sundance, they were able to re-watch that. They updated cut. As you know, or do you not know? Never know.

Sharon Liese (33:19)

⁓ You never really know because you

update and you let them know and then you don't know when they make their final decisions.

Marcus Mizelle (33:29)

Who do you, who did you talk to? ⁓ I guess who made the phone call? Did you get the phone call that you were in to Sundance? Talk about that.

Sharon Liese (33:34)

I did, I did, I did.

Oh my gosh, that was such, it's like the moment you'll always remember. It was my second time getting into Sundance, but I had a short the first time. This was a little, felt a little bigger and the stakes seemed higher and I knew that it was so few. I was getting anxious and

And then I started feeling like something's gonna happen. I was like feeling it in my bones. And then I was on, I did, I did. I checked Vimeo. It wasn't like there were a lot of views, but I know you talked about that on one of your podcasts, that it's, you don't know because they also, there's ways to mask it. And if they watch it all together, that could be five programmers watching it in one viewing.

Marcus Mizelle (34:07)

you felt like you felt good. You felt good about it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Sharon Liese (34:28)

in a room. So one view could really be five views. So you don't know. And I was on a Zoom like this with my editor, as we did most every day. my phone was ringing, and I didn't recognize the number. So I didn't answer it. And then I didn't leave a message. And then five minutes later, I got a text from Sudeep Sharma, who is one of the

Marcus Mizelle (34:32)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Sharon Liese (34:54)

the senior programmers and it was just like, hey Sharon, this is Sudeep, I'm a programmer at Sundance and I have a question for you about your film, can you call me? And so I hold the phone up to my editor and I show him ⁓ and I go, gotta go. And then I was shaking and I called him and ⁓ he told me that they loved the film and. ⁓

Marcus Mizelle (35:04)

You're like,

Sharon Liese (35:22)

that they would like to me to Sundance. That was the question. So I'm like, yes, yes, yes. And I started crying and he got emotional. And then, you know, as filmmakers, like, we're curious and we ask questions. So I'm like, is this the best part of your job? And he said it is. And it was great.

Marcus Mizelle (35:26)

Mmm. Mmm. ⁓ it's wonderful.

Yeah,

nice. that's so special. Great. Okay, so then were you still, you were still cutting at that point, or were you? Were you cleaning it up? you? Yeah, yeah.

Sharon Liese (35:46)

Yeah, it was really neat.

Oh yes,

yeah we were cutting through December. I mean January.

Marcus Mizelle (35:57)

And then so sound mix and

design and color, how did that look? You didn't just did a quick, I mean, I don't know, tell me about that.

Sharon Liese (36:04)

It

wasn't quick. We were a little late, which everyone is when they deliver to Sundance. Not too late, just a little late. But we were doing color and sound, we were doing color as we were still locking the film because they can just overlay it on. So was like we were doing everything at once.

Marcus Mizelle (36:10)

Mm-hmm.

tweaking, tweaking, tweaking.

But knowing that you were going to Sundance too, it's like, let's go. ⁓

Sharon Liese (36:33)

Yeah, was

exciting.

Marcus Mizelle (36:36)

and the last Sundance at Park City too. How was that? What was the vibe like?

Sharon Liese (36:39)

It was interesting because it wasn't as... ⁓ I didn't feel like... There was a lot of nostalgia, but there was also some excitement around ⁓ the newness. And, you know, the irony and the timing of Robert Redford's death and his passing and then passing it on to go with a new beginning just kind of felt right.

Marcus Mizelle (36:48)

Mm-hmm.

you

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Sharon Liese (37:08)

So

that was really something. his legacy was very much present. And Amy Redford, his daughter, is very involved in Sundance and spoke at many of the events that I went to. And especially, there wasn't a dry eye in the house during the director's brunch. And she relayed what her dad would have said to us and what she had to say to us. ⁓

It was very inspiring and very heartfelt.

Marcus Mizelle (37:42)

Well, that's such a special thing to experience. I mean the Boulder move seems interesting I mean, I don't know too much about why or when but I mean I mean why or When they decided to do it, but Boulder I guess makes sense as far as it's a big college town, right? Maybe it's it's more it's a more liberal place in Utah. Right? much strictness ⁓ I mean, I guess it makes sense in that way. I guess people are so used to

Sharon Liese (38:01)

Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (38:06)

Park City, been one, I'm glad I went the one time that I did just to have experienced it and it seemed very special, but it was not, it wasn't really convenient getting to or.

Sharon Liese (38:09)

Mm-hmm.

It's

so hard and I tried to tell people because I had a lot of friends and family who wanted to come to support me at the premiere and I just, there's really no preparing people for what you have to, ⁓ I don't know, the way you have to navigate around Park City is, ⁓ it's difficult. We didn't have bad weather when we were there, it was cold, but we didn't have like snow. I've been there when there's been a snow storm.

And that slows everything down, but the traffic, it's just kind of gridlocked because they're not used to having that many people in that small space and everything's sort of spread out. There's no one place you can go where you can walk to everything. So it's, yeah, so it's a little difficult. ⁓ then standing on, like I knew a lot of people who thought that they were gonna see five films a day and it's like, it's just impossible. You're not gonna be able to do that.

Marcus Mizelle (38:55)

Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, because you're spending

so much time getting to and from because it is spread out.

Sharon Liese (39:13)

Yeah, I'm in line

and getting on the wait list and...

Marcus Mizelle (39:16)

Where did you, where's your film screen? What venue?

Sharon Liese (39:18)

At the Ray Theater. Yeah, so we were at the Ray, and then we were at the library, and then we were also at ⁓ Redstone, and then we were at Salt Lake. And we had a full house each time. It was so great. And the people were clapping and laughing at all the places that we were hoping that they would laugh at.

Marcus Mizelle (39:20)

Nice, nice.

Ugh. ⁓ Ugh. Full house.

Good for you. Because

like, I'm sure you've experienced the other end too, right? Where it's like, why isn't it working? Have ever experienced that? That's the worst.

Sharon Liese (39:48)

I've

experienced that more in like screenings. And you know, and now you're like, yeah, when you're doing test screenings and people are like, I'm confused about that. Or there was something that we thought was hilarious and nobody was getting it. And we played a lot with tone in the film and we didn't want, so we, and we made this, we decided that we,

Marcus Mizelle (39:53)

Okay, where it's like like test screenings. Yeah.

Sharon Liese (40:16)

like later on that we would change the opening and we did Pete Seeger's song, Newspaper Man, ⁓ which is kind of a funny song. And we had it playing to bison on the screen. And so when we start with that, we really felt like we kind of signaled what the tone of the film was gonna be and gave people permission to laugh. And not to laugh at the people, but to laugh.

Marcus Mizelle (40:43)

Mm-hmm.

Sharon Liese (40:46)

at the situations people were in.

Marcus Mizelle (40:48)

Got you, okay. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is huge, right? Yeah, because you're just setting the tone. And it's not some sort of very serious one, it sounds like. Which lets the guard down. Yeah, but when you're not coming so serious right off the bat, people let their guards down and open up, I guess. You would say, yeah. Okay, what do you have next? What are you working on now? Or now slash next?

Sharon Liese (40:53)

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean there are serious topics in it and themes in it, but.

Yeah.

boy,

I know. Well, I'm working on a few things. Some things in the true crime space. Also when I mentioned High School Confidential, which I did several years ago, mean, are in their 30s. And so I'm thinking about doing, cause I have lots of verite footage with them. So and talk about longitudinal. This is like where they are, like what happens over these decades after high school. ⁓

Marcus Mizelle (41:22)

yeah.

Sharon Liese (41:37)

and how do people transform into having families and partners and divorces and deaths and so.

Marcus Mizelle (41:45)

What was that British, the British 7-Up where it was just time, it's just so fascinating, right? It is that kind of truncated time, the power of the edit really. Any past films that most inspired you and or just inspired that you watched while making this film, Seized?

Sharon Liese (41:47)

The 7-up

Yeah.

yeah, I I went back ⁓ to watch all the Presidents Men. ⁓ I also, while we were editing, I watched ⁓ cover up. ⁓ And because I love Laura Portras, I mean, I just think her work is so amazing.

Marcus Mizelle (42:24)

I watched it the other

day, yeah, a week ago. Yeah, it's clean. It's just clean and tight. Well done. And one of the best archival ⁓ filmmakers, I feel like. It just makes it very engaging.

Sharon Liese (42:28)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. And when there's something haunting,

she can really bring in, because I felt like I saw throwbacks to Citizen Four, was that what it was? Citizen Four. Yeah, and won an Oscar for. So yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (42:53)

Okay, yeah. Which she also directed, Yeah. that's right, that's right. The Snowden one.

Sharon Liese (43:01)

So I saw things that were haunting in that, in the same sort of tone at times. ⁓ So that was really interesting.

Marcus Mizelle (43:10)

Okay, we got our past film check. know, if you could go back in time until your younger filmmaking self, something, what would it be?

Sharon Liese (43:18)

I would tell myself to just make sure to put in the hours and that you really need that flying time and you need to really...

just keep going and not, mean, always, students always, you know, ask me like, how do you do it, how you do it? And I just say, you just have to do it. You have to like get your crew together or you need to pick up a camera and just keep trying to tell the stories because someone's interested and everybody's got a story.

Marcus Mizelle (43:53)

I ain't that the truth. I real life is wild and crazy. It's way better than, well, I'll say better. Yeah, I mean, as far as being a dramatist, amazing how much more dramatic real life is than anything that one could create, you know? I think. Stranger than fiction for real, especially in 2026.

Sharon Liese (44:04)

stranger than fiction, you know.

Marcus Mizelle (44:10)

you feel good about what's next for the film?

Sharon Liese (44:12)

I do, I mean, you can't hope for a better launching pad for your film than Sundance. I hope something can materialize because I have this opportunity and this privilege of presenting my film there. So ⁓ I'm gonna go with that for a while and hope that the film has a good ⁓ long life.

Marcus Mizelle (44:31)

Yeah.

It's so much hard work and it's just so wonderful to be rewarded for that hard work.