It’s hard to resist a great story, especially when it falls in your lap. But director David Siev had decent reasons not to make a documentary about his family during the pandemic, especially after an advanced trailer for the film was not well received by some people in the small town where his family runs a restaurant. And it was months before it became clear how timely and revealing the story would be. That film, “Bad Axe,” opens on Nov. 18 at Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge.
Siev is a young New York filmmaker who went home to rural Michigan to stay with his family when COVID-19 hit the city hard early during the pandemic. His family agreed to let him film them, and at first that mostly was about the family’s efforts to keep the restaurant going, as it went from being shut down to offering takeout only. His sister Jaclyn is a fiercely determined eldest child who also moved home, bringing along her husband, to help run the restaurant and minimize her parents’ exposure to the coronavirus, since both have health conditions that make them particularly vulnerable.
Bad Axe is a town just big enough for two stoplights and a Walmart, Jaclyn’s husband says. It’s a small community, and in the film, it becomes clear it’s full of Trump supporters who are angry about having to wear masks and other measures to mitigate the pandemic. The Sievs try to avoid social and political conflicts, since many of their customers and employees are Trump supporters.
David Siev’s father Chun Siev survived Cambodia’s killing fields in the mid-1970s. Along with his mother and five siblings, he escaped to Thailand and sought refuge in the U.S. They came to Michigan, and eventually Chun Siev married Rachel, a Mexican-American woman. They opened a doughnut shop, and struggled for years to build it into the family restaurant Rachel’s.
From the opening scene recounting anti-Asian messages sent to the Siev’s restaurant, it's not hard to guess some of what's coming. Public jostling about requiring masks will happen at their restaurant. They will get brushback when anti-Asian sentiments kick in, and the film includes snippets of then President Donald Trump using terms like “kung flu.” But there’s plenty more they can’t avoid. Their family is conspicuously multicultural in a predominantly white conservative town. The murder of George Floyd brings Black Lives Matter protests to the area, and that explodes some of the underlying tensions between neighbors.
When making an autobiographical documentary, a filmmaker can’t tell a compelling or credible story by pulling punches, and Siev doesn’t. His camera films as Jaclyn and the Siev parents butt heads over who runs the restaurant. They’re probably uninhibited by his presence, though he’s obviously filming, and that allows him to capture their raw emotions. His family also lets him know that he will eventually go back to New York and they will still depend on the restaurant and its customers.
Some of the juxtapositions are funny and stark. Chun Siev talks about farming using water buffalo in Cambodia, and he laughs about Michigan farmers who complain their tractors don't have air conditioning. He also shows different family members how to handle a pistol, shotgun or rifle. David Siev cleverly weaves in scenes concerning his father’s memories of the political violence of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge with the specters of guns, violence and flag-waving in rural Michigan, some of which stems from racist hate groups.
“Bad Axe” has the immediacy of reality TV, but this family found itself drawn into the issues of the times in a way that makes the story much more than the sum of its parts. Though David Siev focuses on his family, it’s a very good look at how hard it can be for any group of people to get along in tough conditions.
Find more information at zeitgeistnola.org.
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