Kansas City filmmaker just won an Emmy. A Hollywood producer has big plans for her now

When Sharon Liese says she’s “having quite the ride this year,” she isn’t kidding.

The Overland Park filmmaker won an Emmy Award last week for “The Flagmakers,” which she produced and co-directed with Academy Award-winner Cynthia Wade for National Geographic Documentary Films. She even gave an acceptance speech during the News and Documentary Emmy Awards ceremony Sept. 28 at the Palladium Times Square in New York City.

The category for Outstanding Short Documentary (40 minutes or less) was announced near the end of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awards (a separate event from the prime-time Emmy Awards, which were postponed because of the actors strike).

“I just closed my eyes for a second and said, ‘It’s really great to be nominated,’” Liese said. “And then I almost felt like I didn’t hear it right when they said ‘The Flagmakers.’ That was a split second. And then I was on my feet, screaming I guess.”

There could be more screaming in Liese’s future — perhaps at the Tonys or the Oscars? — based on recent developments.

Movie and TV producer Mark Gordon (“Saving Private Ryan,” “Speed,” “Ray Donovan”) is adapting “The Flagmakers” into a stage musical. Gordon served as an executive producer on the documentary, along with basketball superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo and others.

“The Flagmakers” focuses on Eder Flag, an employee-owned company in the Milwaukee metro that is the nation’s largest manufacturer of both flags and flagpoles. The people who actually make them represent “a microcosm of the changing face of America,” Liese previously told The Star. It’s streaming on Hulu and Disney+.

It was among 15 movies short-listed for an Oscar nomination this year in the documentary short film category but didn’t make the final five.

Meanwhile, Liese’s short documentary “Parker,” about a Black family in Kansas City, premiered at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. It is Oscar-qualified and has been picked up by a major film distributor.

And, oh yes, Liese said her story about a religious cult will appear later this year as a four-part series on a “premium network.”

These projects come on top of a pile of acclaimed work filmed in the Kansas City area: the HBO documentary “Transhood,” about four local transgender kids, and the CNN short “The Gnomist,” about little “gnome homes” along an Overland Park walking path. She also co-created the CBS series “Pink Collar Crimes,” which featured a Kansas City case.

With so much else going on now, the Emmy experience still stood out for Liese.

“It’s definitely a bucket-list experience,” she said.

“Every filmmaker wants to be acknowledged, especially by their peers, because it’s a lot of work. I’m incredibly proud of it.”