Eder Insights

READ FULL ARTICLE When Sharon Liese says she’s “having quite the ride this year,” she isn’t kidding. The Overland Park filmmaker won an Emmy Award...

  READ FULL ARTICLE   "The Flagmakers" — the 2022 documentary about Oak Creek's Eder Flag and its largely immigrant work force that landed ...

“[Milwaukee] is so diverse,” Liese says. “It’s more diverse than I would have ever have imagined. And that shows up in everything—in the way that people talk about things, the way people see things, the food that we ate…and just sort of a warmth and authenticity that was really endearing.”

- Sharon Liese, Director/Producer

THE FLAGMAKERS Documentary Stage Musical Adaptation In the Works

"Made up of locals, immigrants and refugees, the workers wrestle with their identity as they stitch the flags together. The acclaimed documentary short provides a glimpse into the lives of the people that make the country's most recognizable icon."

- Michael Major, Broadway World

Mark Gordon Pictures has tapped playwright John J. Caswell Jr. to adapt a stage musical of the acclaimed short documentary The Flagmakers, from Oscar winner Cynthia Wade and AFI Doc Award winner Sharon Liese. The New York Public Theater’s associate artistic director Saheem Ali is attached to direct.

Radica, an immigrant from Serbia, works as a sewing manager at the company.

“In all our flags we have pieces of our employees’ stories,” Radica says in the film, in her accented English. “Their thoughts, what they are thinking while they are making that flag, ‘Is today a better day than yesterday?’ That flag has a story to tell.”

“You get some of the backstory of people that are working there, and it’s a different lens on what the American flag means. I really appreciate the different perspective that it gives you on refugees and what they contribute and how they view our country.”

- Linda Broker, RMWFF



BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY

The Flagmakers (National Geographic Documentary Films)

“There are people from all over the world who are part of this company, and who are the people who produce that flag,” he says. “A lot of them are in this country because they wanted to come here for an opportunity at a better life. They may have been running from something in their country, some sort of tragedy, or some hardship in their country, and they come to America looking for that opportunity.”

-SugarRay Kayde, Eder Flag Production Manager

"An Oak Creek flag manufacturer is the focus of a locally set documentary that will have its hometown premiere on Thursday night at the Oriental Theatre. The Flagmakers, from National Geographic Films, is the story of employee-owned Eder Flag, which sews and ships five million American flags per year from its Rawson Avenue factory."

- Rich Rovito, Milwaukee Mag

From National Geographic Documentary Films, Academy Award-winning director Cynthia Wade, award-winning director Sharon Liese and executive producer Giannis Antetokounmpo, THE FLAGMAKERS poses one of today’s most pressing questions: who is the American flag for? Employee-owned Eder Flag in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, sews and ships five million American flags a year. The flagmakers — locals, immigrants and refugees — stitch stars and stripes as they wrestle with identity and belonging.