Every summer since 1953, the farming community of Three Oaks, Michigan, has staged a record-breaking Flag Day celebration. Its very first parade featured about 20 marching units, but by the time filmmakers Andrew and Melissa Shea decided to make a documentary of the 2024 parade, that number had grown to well over 100.
“Our goal was to portray a moment of unity in a time when so much is in a different direction,” Andrew Shea told The Epoch Times in a recent interview.
“We started spending our summers in southwest Michigan about 13 years ago,” said Melissa Shea.
It became an annual outing for the Sheas, who met at the University of Southern California’s film school, and their two children, who found themselves “in awe of this small-town celebration.”
“The parade itself is amazing, but it’s not a film about a parade,” Andrew Shea explained. “The parade itself only lasts an hour and a half, and then it’s done. We hope to capture the sense of community and commitment to our veterans, and sacrifice, and showing up that we had observed in Three Oaks during all the years, not just on Flag Day weekend.”
“Flag Day,” set to roll out in theaters across the country starting on June 12, is also being made available for free community screenings through the National Civic League.
While Three Oaks embodies the values of classic small-town America, it now finds itself at a cultural, political, and economic inflection point.
“We were thinking about what to do next, and it was an upcoming election year, 2024, and so we thought it may be an interesting time to try to capture it,” Melissa Shea said.
“Michigan is a swing state, a battleground state, and we recognized that there were going to be all these symbols of division in a complicated election year, but we also knew that that parade really brought a community together, and we wanted to observe,” Andrew Shea explained.
The June 2024 parade turned out to be their biggest yet with participants including units of veterans, drill teams, pageant courts, equestrian groups, antique tractors, musical marching units, clowns, antique cars and trucks, politicians, drum and bugle corps, and Shriners on mini bikes.
“They give a lot of their time,” said Melissa Shea about the Three Oaks community. “The parade is really built on all volunteers, and it’s a year-round effort. I appreciate the level that they demonstrate what I view as a successful community.”
Although “Flag Day” is the first film they have co-directed, Melissa Shea has previously been an editor on Andrew’s projects—which include the documentaries “Portrait of Wally” (2012), “Wrestling Alligators” (2016), and the feature “I’ll Be There” (2023).
The Sheas live in Austin, Texas, where Andrew Shea is a professor at the University of Texas.
“Flag Day” follows the intertwined lives of local residents as they prepare for the town’s defining holiday ritual.
“We brought 11 splinter camera crews, very small crews from Chicago—just two people each—and we assigned each one to a different main character or subject. We were interested in the little dramas and moments of humor and insight that were taking place during the parade, behind the parade, leading up to the parade,” Andrew Shea said.
As they began to figure out the documentary’s subjects, the filmmakers “stressed” with the community “that this wasn’t going to be a Chamber of Commerce ad, that this wasn’t going to be just a slick video, publicizing the parade and the Flag Day weekend, that we really were interested in a deeper introspective, observational portrait of a community.”
Melissa Shea said the film’s participants were selected because they represented a cross-section of the community with all different ages, backgrounds, and lengths of time lived in the town represented.
“They were surprisingly natural, relaxed, and welcoming,” she said.
The Three Oaks economy for decades has been based in agriculture and farming. Then came a wave of wealthy Chicagoans, bringing with them art galleries, boutiques, spas, and expensive restaurants and bars. While this trend began years ago, it accelerated markedly during the pandemic as remote work became the norm.
“A lot of young people who grew up in Three Oaks maybe can’t afford to live there the way they were able to 30, 40 years ago,” Andrew Shea said. “We wanted to touch on all of that. We were very fortunate that the community was open to us.”
The filmmakers are also grateful for the film’s music, which consists of some of the country’s most compelling voices. Artists such as Johnny Mathis, Paul Simon, John Batiste, John Mellencamp, and Ryan Zaragoza, provide an emotive soundtrack.
“We looked deeply into songs about America, and with America in the title, because that’s what the movie’s about,” Andrew Shea said. “With a short film like this, it was very important to have very powerful music.”
The Sheas will attend the opening of “Flag Day” in Santa Fe, New Mexico on Friday, and then travel to Three Oaks for the Sunday Flag Day afternoon screening and Q&A.
The filmmakers remain in awe of the community’s unwavering allegiance to their country, the event, and to each other.
“The more Andrew and I have the opportunity to speak about the film, the more that stands out to us,” said Melissa Shea.
“It is a community where they value showing up for each other—not just on this day, but all year. They value giving back to the community; they value giving people opportunities; they value honoring their veterans.”
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