‘Flag Day’ Trailer – Small-Town America Takes Center Stage in Andrew & Melissa Shea’s Documentary

Three Oaks, Michigan, home to the country’s largest Flag Day parade, is the setting for Flag Day, a documentary by Andrew Shea and Melissa Shea.

The film immerses audiences in the rhythms of the small Michigan town preparing for its annual celebration.

Featured in the documentary are a mosaic of voices, including veterans, business owners, locals and volunteers – Shelly Taylor, Deborah Dunphy, Mya Thomas, Dyane Thomas-Niemzyk, Jason Niemzyk, Lyn Isbell, Dewey Foster, Allen “Skip” Kaiser, Monty Dunning, Albert Brayboy Jr., Rick Strauss, Albert Lee Brayboy, Levi Strauss, Marco Chavarry, Alexis McCarthy, Heather Whitlow, Barry Brown, Michael Shannon, Billy Donner, Bill Donner Sr., Barbara Donner, Laverne Brayboy, Chuck Heit, and Jason Long.

Flag Day is set for a U.S. theatrical release beginning June 12, 2026, launching in New York before expanding nationwide in the lead-up to Flag Day on June 14.

Set in the small farming community of Three Oaks, Michigan — home to the nation’s largest Flag Day parade — Flag Day is a verité portrait of ritual, identity, and belonging in an era of deep political division. Somewhere between tradition and transformation lies this village, whose annual parade has become a pageant of American aspiration and memory. Over the course of Flag Day weekend, the film immerses viewers in the lives of a diverse cross-section of townspeople: veterans, local business owners, marching bands, and volunteers who, for one weekend each June, create an event that is at once nostalgic and reflective of the tensions of our time. Their stories reveal both the beauty and the fragility of community life in a time of polarization. Flag Day was filmed in an observational, verité style, capturing moments of humor, conflict, and grace as the community prepares for its defining ritual. The film offers a ground-level portrait of civic life — a portrait that holds both the good and the hard truths of being American. The project asks what binds us together today and whether those bonds can still be renewed.

“Having grown up on opposite coasts — Andrew in New York City and Melissa in Southern California — a sense of small-town belonging has always felt elusive to us. But that shifted in 2013, when we stood on a sidewalk with our two young children in Three Oaks, Michigan, to watch the Flag Day parade. What began as a summer visit evolved into a decade of deep friendships within this community,” said the Sheas in a statement.

Watch the official trailer for Flag Day above.