Giannis Antetokounmpo signs on as executive producer on 'The Flagmakers,' a National Geographic movie about workers at Oak Creek's Eder Flag
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A new short documentary on Oak Creek's Eder Flag and its workers, many of whom are immigrants, has lined up an MVP executive producer: Giannis Antetokounmpo.
National Geographic announced that the Milwaukee Bucks star has signed on as an executive producer for "The Flagmakers," a new short documentary that entertainment site Deadline.com says is expected to be a strong Academy Awards contender.
National Geographic released a trailer for the documentary Friday.
National Geographic describes "The Flagmakers" this way:
"'The Flagmakers' pose 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."
In a news release issued Friday, Antetokounmpo said: “As an immigrant myself, I find this film incredibly personal and a deeply moving testament to those who call this country ‘home.’ Each one of these inspiring individuals have overcome adversity and challenges in their lives and bring those unique experiences and stories as they craft the American flag.”
In the statement, co-directors Cynthia Wade (who won an Oscar for her 2007 short documentary "Freeheld") and Sharon Liese presented Eder Flag as a unique place for understanding the relationship people of diverse backgrounds have with the American flag.
“When we first walked into this Midwestern flag factory staffed by immigrants, refugees and locals, we instantly saw that this would be an ideal setting to explore the layered and deeply nuanced relationships Americans have to our flag and to our country,” Wade and Liese said in the statement.
Shot during the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, the film, which screened this weekend at the Camden International Film Festival in Maine, will have a brief theatrical run in Los Angeles to qualify for the Academy Awards and is expected to make the festival circuit before turning up on streaming services — most likely Disney+ — later this year. Antetokounmpo has another connection with Disney+: In June, the streaming service debuted "Rise," a dramatized origin story depicting the early years of the two-time NBA Most Valuable Player.
Contact Chris Foran at chris.foran@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @cforan12.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Giannis Antetokounmpo joins movie on workers at Oak Creek's Eder Flag
