Film
Bad Axe (film)
Bad Axe is a 2022 documentary by David Siev about his Asian American family's fight to keep its restaurant open in rural Michigan during the pandemic.[1][2] The film is named after the family's hometown of Bad Axe, Michigan.[3]
Synopsis
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Siev left New York City for Bad Axe and began filming his family.[4] The family's restaurant, Rachel's, moves to takeout orders as it tries to stay open under pandemic rules.[3] The film records a real-time portrait of 2020, from homemade masks to living-room birthday parties.[3][4]
When the family speaks out during the Black Lives Matter movement, it faces backlash from a divided community and from white supremacists.[5][4] After the family joined a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Bad Axe, it received hostile letters and threatening phone calls.[3] The film also follows the intergenerational trauma of Cambodia's killing fields.[5] Chun Siev, the father, recounts being displaced and starved and witnessing killings during the Cambodian genocide. That history shapes his relationship with his daughter Jaclyn.[3][4]
Production and credits
Siev is a first-generation Cambodian-Mexican-American filmmaker, and Bad Axe was his feature debut as director.[6][5] He directed, produced and filmed it.[5] Siev and co-producer and editor Peter Wagner began as a two-person team working from opposite sides of the country, and editor Rosie Walunas joined later.[6] The producers were Jude Harris, Diane Moy Quon, David Siev and Katarina Vasquez, and Daniel Dae Kim and Jeff Tremaine were executive producers.[7][5] Chun, Jaclyn, Rachel and Raquel Siev appear as themselves, with Skyler Janssen, Michael Meinhold and Austin Turmell.[2]
Release and reception
Bad Axe won the Audience Award for Documentary Feature at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival and the Critics Choice Award for Best Documentary.[8] IFC Films released it on November 18, 2022.[2] It was also placed on the Oscar shortlist.[3] The two-screen theater in Bad Axe showed the film and hosted question-and-answer sessions with Siev, who called it a love letter to the town.[3]
In 2024, the film was among ten recommended features at the Cambodia International Film Festival in Phnom Penh.[9] The festival's summary notes the family's clash with white nationalists and an anti-mask protest.[9] The Cambodia Town Film Festival listed it as a Special Presentation in 2024.[7] It returned as a special screening at the 2025 festival, at the Art Theatre of Long Beach on August 23, 2025, with a question-and-answer session with Siev.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Cambodia Town Film Festival, CTFF 2025 Special Screening: Bad Axe (archived)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Metacritic, Bad Axe
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Michigan Alum, Dear Bad Axe
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 IFC Center, Bad Axe
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Bad Axe Film, home - Bad Axe Film
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 blog.adobe.com, Showcasing a powerful story of pain, adversity, and triumph in BAD AXE - Adobe Blog
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Cambodia Town Film Festival, Bad Axe
- ↑ Cornell Cinema, Bad Axe
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Asian Film Festivals, 10 Films you shouldn't miss from the 13th Cambodia International Film Festival (2024-06-25)