IFC Films revealed the official trailer for Bad Axe, the award-winning documentary directed by David Siev. The film is a real-time portrait of 2020 and unfolds as an Asian/Mexican-American family in Trump’s rural America fights to keep their restaurant and American dream alive in the face of a pandemic, Neo-Nazis, and generational scars from the Cambodian Killing Fields.
Bad Axe premiered at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award and Special Recognition for Exceptional Intimacy; and will be released in theaters on November 18, 2022.
Daniel Dae Kim joined as an Executive Producer, and commented “Bad Axe shines a timely spotlight on the many challenges facing our families today. 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 (Black Lives Matter) 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.
Watch the official trailer for Bad Axe.