In Oscar Contender ‘The Flagmakers,’ Immigrants And The Native Born Stitch Together Old Glory
deadline.comEder Flag in Oak Creek, Wisc. makes American flags – a huge number of them. More than five million a year, in fact. It sells 3’ by 5’ outdoor flags for $39.99 or 50’ by 80’ giant Old Glories for a little under $10,000, and flags of every size in between and the flagpoles to fly them on.
What’s especially remarkable about Eder is not so much its annual sales, but who makes the flags. Most of the company’s workforce hails from around the world – Iraq, Tanzania, Mexico, Algeria, Serbia, Bosnia and other parts of the globe – people born under another flag.
The Oscar-contending short documentary The Flagmakers reveals the stories of many of those who sew, assemble, package and ship for Eder.
The film directed by Sharon Liese and Cynthia Wade premieres on the National Geographic Channel tonight, and launches on Disney+ on December 21. “It’s majority immigrants and refugees sewing the American flag,” Wade says, noting Eder has become the country’s largest manufacturer of flags and flagpoles.
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