With the pandemic, Trump, climate change, the BLM movement, racial tensions and a grocery list of other things, the past couple of years has been tough for everyone… but we seldom get to see how this has impacted marginalized people in rural towns and cities outside of major metropolitan areas.
David Siev‘s award winning documentary Bad Axe has been on the festival circuit and has won 15+ awards including accolades at Telluride and SXSW, where it premiere. Now, ahead of its November 18 theatrical and on demand debut, the IFC Films documentary has gained the support of actor, producer and advocate Daniel Dae Kim, who has signed on as an executive producer.
“Bad Axe shines a timely spotlight on the many challenges facing our families today,” said Kim in a statement. “Told through the lens of an immigrant family pursuing their American dream, David Siev and his family serve as beacons of hope to everyone working faithfully toward the goals of unity and prosperity in difficult times. I’m excited and proud to help bring this special story to the screen.”
After leaving NYC for his rural hometown of Bad Axe, Michigan, at the start of the pandemic, Asian American filmmaker David Siev documents his family’s struggles to keep their restaurant afloat. As fears of the virus grow, deep generational scars dating back to Cambodia’s bloody “killing fields” come to the fore, straining the relationship between the family’s patriarch, Chun, and his daughter, Jaclyn. When the BLM movement takes center stage in America, the family uses its collective voice to speak out in their conservative community. What unfolds is a real-time portrait of 2020 through the lens of one multicultural family’s fight to stay in business, stay involved, and stay alive.
Siev serves as producer alongside Jude Harris, Diane Quon, and Kat Vasquiez. Executive producers are also Jeff Tremaine, Shanna Newton Zablow, Marci Wiseman, Daniel Chalfen, Dawn Bonder, Michael Meinhold, and Tim Chow.
