Every June 14, floats and legions parade through Three Oaks, Michigan, to celebrate the biggest Flag Day event in the country.

In 2013, Andrew Shea and Melissa Shea, who graduated from USC in the ’90s, started spending their summers in a small town near South Bend, Indiana. Near the end of their first summer there, Melissa Shea met Sandra Strauss, who recommended they go to the small town’s Flag Day parade.

“[Strauss] happened to be Miss Three Oaks and was on top of the float … and we just fell in love with it,” Melissa Shea said. “We didn’t know what Flag Day was, and had never experienced that. So we really fell in love with the event and the town.”

Flag Day in Three Oaks is considered to be the biggest Flag Day celebration in the country, bringing together all of the town’s businesses, associations and coalitions to share and honor their patriotic spirit. As they became more integrated in the community, the Sheas were inspired to profile the town and make “Flag Day,” a documentary about the town’s parade, which had its Los Angeles premiere in Encino and Glendale this past week.

“It occurred to us that the parade, which had come to mean a lot to us, might be a good subject for an observational documentary, especially as we were coming up on an election year in 2024,” Andrew Shea said. “This would be an opportunity to profile a community that bridges the political divide and all kinds of divides on that one day of the year; it really makes an effort to come together and show up for each other.”

The many groups that participate in the parade every year include the Miss Three Oaks pageant winner float, the tractor owners of the town, the Michigan City Soul Steppers and the American Legion. Albert Brayboy Jr., a member of the American Legion, was excited to have the opportunity to reframe the narrative on what patriotism means to him, and share what Flag Day has done to bring people from different backgrounds together in his community.

“We’re all veterans, and we all love each other. But our society and our world [are] trying to diminish some of that, and I saw this as an opportunity to shine a light on this one particular town where people are drawn together by the flag and by patriotism,” Brayboy said.

In the documentary, the Sheas demonstrate how the flag brings the Three Oaks community together. According to Melissa Shea, there’s an “element of nostalgia” that she carries from the bicentennial in 1976 and a strong emotional reaction to the Flag Day flag raising that she wanted to bring to her audience.

“People had tears in their eyes watching the flag flying,” Melissa Shea said. “We really wanted to bring that moment to the audience … and remind you to feel pride in this country … to kind of sweep you into what it feels like for us being at Flag Day.” 

The film opens in a classroom full of kids answering their teacher’s questions about Flag Day and the importance of the event. That was a deliberate decision, according to Andrew and Melissa Shea, to drill in how foundational Flag Day is to the Three Oaks community.

“For me, at least, the flag [was introduced] when you do the pledge in school, and you were forced to do the pledge — just do it,” Melissa Shea said. “This kind of takes it to the next level in a place where there’s more behind that. There’s a ritual in this town that educates the kids about the veterans and the fight for freedom that sometimes gets lost.”

In addition to the Pledge of Allegiance scene, Andrew and Melissa Shea also used the soundtrack to drive this idea of reassessing what patriotism and freedom mean.

Some of the songs in the documentary included Raye Zaragoza’s “American Dream,” Jon Batiste’s “FREEDOM,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “America,”and John Mellencamp’s “Small Town,” all of which represent the theme of “American dream,” according to Andrew Shea. 

Despite the documentary’s overarching core idea of reframing the American dream and showcasing a community that unites over patriotic values rather than separating, the film didn’t sugarcoat moments where there were differing opinions. 

“We didn’t want it to be a Chamber of Commerce ad,” Andrew Shea said. “We told everybody, ‘This is not going to be a glossy promotional video for Three Oaks Chamber of Commerce.’ We want it to be an in-depth observational portrait of a pretty complicated community where there’s a lot of love.”

According to Melissa Shea, at its core, “Flag Day” is a portrait of a town where, despite all their differences, people show up for each other. 

“I asked Diane Thomas, who is the parade coordinator, ‘What is patriotism to you?’” Melissa Shea said. “A lot of people assume it’s just about this dedication to the flag in America, but it was really interesting because for her, and I think [for] Three Oaks, it’s really about service, being in service and showing up for your community.”

The film will be screened at multiple locations in the coming year, including the U.S. Navy Memorial on Veterans Day.