Alexis Vitale is taking back the American flag. The famed jewelry designer and filmmaker even has one displayed outside the Brooklyn home where she lives with her husband and three children.
“I love it,” Vitale tells me. “I bought some gay pride flags, but I haven’t put them out yet. I like that it’s just American flags. I like that you don’t know about it.”
Not knowing what he’s talking about, if someone saw that flag, would they think that the house belonged to a right-leaning, possibly MAGA family? That’s what it means.
That’s the premise of Bitter’s directorial debut, “Reclaiming the Flag.” The film, produced by Oscar winner Bruce Cohen, focuses on the LGBTQ community and how we can reclaim the flag as a symbol of the right of all Americans to unite. As Lena Waithe says in the movie, “Depends on how you feel about the flag, depends on how America feels about you.”
In addition to Waithe, the film features interviews with Gus Kenworthy, Jonathan Capehart, Marc Jacobs, Bill T. Jones, Jim Parsons, George Takei, Gottmik, Gigi Goode, Cheyenne Jackson, Brandon Flynn, Harper Steele, Isaac Mizrahi, John Cameron Mitchell, Paul Tazewell, Raquel Willis, Josh Wood, Jenna Lyons, Justin Tranter, and others. Marc Jacobs.
I spoke to Bitter after recent special Pride Month screenings of the film in New York City and Los Angeles.
“When we shot this movie, it was right around the time that President Trump was coming after colleges, so it was very difficult to find people willing to be on camera,” Vitale said. “People were nervous to talk about America at all. So when we shot this movie, I think people were emotional from the beginning. And I think when they held the flag, and we put the flag in their hands, the emotions ran high.
“We didn’t tell them it was going to happen, but they were able to see this kind of shock that they weren’t expecting,” he continues. “Suddenly they were faced with their own feelings about the Star-Spangled Banner.”
Bitard said the flag had been “appropriated” and “weaponized” by the right. “The left is really allowing it to be exploited,” he says. “They didn’t address it.”
There is no mention of Trump in “Reclaim the Flag.” “What really struck me was the symbolism of the American flag and what it was trying to represent, and how we could come to a consensus on what this flag was trying to represent and admit that it never came true,” Vitale says. “It was meant to express that all humans are created equal.”
The screening in New York, in partnership with the Human Rights Campaign, marked the official launch of the Reclaim the Flag movement. New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani spoke at the event. “This film asks us: What does the American flag mean?” he said. “I’m not going to claim to know all the answers, but like many of the people who sat down for this film, I know there’s a lot we can do to make our country more open and inclusive to address these questions honestly and with integrity.”
One thing Bittar doesn’t do is incorporate Old Glory into its jewelry designs. “I don’t want to see a crystallized American flag,” he laughs.
See “Reclaiming the Flag” below.
