Bad Axe Director David Siev on the Making of His American Dream

Mixed Asian Media - December 16, 2022

By Lauren Lola

When David Siev, the director of the documentary film, Bad Axe, went back to his hometown of Bad Axe, Michigan at the start of the pandemic to be with his family, he initially had no intent of creating a documentary. He’s been shooting home videos since his youth, and so his family was used to it, even as their restaurant, Rachel’s Food and Spirits, started to struggle from the pandemic’s economic impact.

That’s not to say that the idea of sharing his family’s story has never crossed his mind. In fact, it’s one that Siev has been wanting to tell for a long time.

“I think I thought I would do that through the means of a narrative script or another way. I never thought it would be a documentary film,” he said in an interview over Zoom. “And that story that I always wanted to share was the American dream story. The story of this Mexican American woman and a Cambodian refugee who decide, of all places, to settle in Bad Axe, Michigan and overcome so many odds and so much adversity that this business they ended up starting with their family goes from being a struggling donut shop to one of the most successful restaurants in the community.”

The idea of the American dream is one that was being challenged and unfolding right before him, and that became clear to Siev following the Black Lives Matter protests, in response to the killing of George Floyd.

Bad Axe, which explores the events of 2020 through the lens of Siev’s multicultural family, is both his first documentary and first feature film. Prior to this, he made a short film called Year Zero, which is based on one of the stories from his father who survived the killing fields in Cambodia. He also previously worked as an assistant to Jackass creator Jeff Tremaine.

As a first timer to documentary filmmaking, Siev credits passion as his guiding compass into making this film. For him, it was the need, not the want, to share his family’s story.

“This was a film that really took a family to make, and I say a family that includes editors and producers and my own family themselves,” he explained. “I had a clear vision of what I wanted to do, but I needed to hear the input from others to best depict that vision that I had. So as you see, I have a very opinionated family and everyone had their own ideas of what the film should be. As a director, you can only listen to so many notes and so many ideas. But I did truly try and listen to everything that made sense and everything that I felt like was best telling the story, whether it came from my little sister or my dad or my team of brilliant editors and producers.”

It's because he was filming his family that, at times, it was difficult for Siev to balance the line between the filmmaker and also being the brother and son. Throughout Bad Axe, there are many high intense moments ranging from arguments among different family members, to dangerous situations. Regardless of whether or not the camera was rolling, Siev believes for the moments to have still played out the same way, because of how used to him filming everyone is.

“But for myself, personally, some of those moments would be ones I think I would typically try and chime in and give my two cents on, especially those moments between Jacqueline and my dad,” he stated. “Whenever those arguments happen in our household, and I think a lot of families can relate, each of us find our own place as far as where we fit within a family and how we deal with those moments.”

Siev isn’t seen or heard from a lot in the film, but there are moments where he would keep the camera rolling to capture the audio, in instances where he would pull aside his sister, Jacqueline, and try to understand her perspective. “Those were really those confessional moments where I was trying to step in and play the role as a brother,” he added, “and I think that's why those feel so honest and so raw and so intimate, because she's not talking to me as a filmmaker. She's just talking to me as the brother who is trying to console her.”

While the film, for the most part, is set in 2020, the story caps off in March 2021. That same month, a shooting spree occurred across three spas in Atlanta, Georgia that left eight people dead; six of them being Asian women.

Siev did not originally intend to conclude the film then, and the reason why the shootings weren’t mentioned was out of wanting to keep the focus on his family.

“By the time I realized that this film had to come from the most personal and specific lens from my family, it felt like any time we tried to pull out the lens and focus on the bigger picture of what was happening in the world,” he explained. “And granted, that does happen once or twice in the film, it felt like the film [would lose] its focus of being about the family and trying to speak on these bigger issues in a way that just wasn't the most effective. I feel like the most effective way to talk about the AAPI hate and the racial reckoning was just by keeping it as specific and focus on my family and our experiences as possible.”

Bad Axe had its world premiere earlier this year at South by Southwest. Since then, it’s been making its rounds throughout the film festival circuit, generating a lot of positive buzz — and even possible Oscar consideration — along the way. It has meant a lot for Siev and his family to see and witness, both from audiences with like-minded viewpoints and also from those who don’t.

“When we got to bring this film to Bad Axe back in May of this past year, it was truly incredible to witness that response,” he said, “because we didn't know how the community would react. We had a lot of people that were so supportive of it and they came to the screening and we had quite a number of people that weren't supportive of it, or at least we're questioning the motives behind it. But they decided to show up to this screening that evening.

“And to my greatest surprise, after the film was done, the film was shown so much love from everyone in that room, including the skeptical individuals. They came up to us afterwards, I kid you not, every single person and they said, ‘I'm sorry for judging your family and your story before I had the chance to see it for myself.’”

That’s not to say that all the feedback has been positive in nature, as Siev was quick to point out. He still gets negative and racist emails on a daily basis. He pulled up an email he received the day before his interview with Mixed Asian Media, where someone called him “an entitled prick who grew up in a mansion.”

As disheartening as comments like that are, he and his family have gotten to a point where they’re not letting them get in the way, and are instead focusing on the positives — particularly the dialogues and conversations that the film has inspired.

“At the end of the day, I think so many filmmakers like myself, we tell our stories because we want change,” he reflected. “We want there to be real dialogue and conversations that take place.”

The whole process of getting Bad Axe made, picked up for distribution, and shown to audiences has very much been Siev’s American dream. As he explained, “This film has given me a real platform and a voice for change. And that's how the American dream is different from that of my parents. Because for them, they just wanted to survive. They just wanted that financial stability to have a roof on ahead and food on the table. And of course, I need all of that as well too. But this other element of the American dream is now being able to be looked at as American as your neighbor and to have a voice just as anyone else and have a platform with this. And I think that's what this film has given to me.”

When asked if he sees himself revisiting this story down the line as a narrative project, he didn’t rule out the possibility. However, he would want it to be the right story, but he doesn’t want it to be a straight adaptation either. He believes there should be another element that should play into the story.

“Having said that, there's so many other stories I feel like I need to tell before I touch on this one, because I feel like this one is still unfolding before me,” he added. “So the timing would have to be right and the story would have to be more solidified. But I never want to say never.”

Bad Axe is now available on demand.

Lauren Lola is an author, freelance writer, playwright, and screenwriter from the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the author of the novels, An Absolute Mind and A Moment’s Worth, as well as the upcoming graphic novel, Dasig. She has written plays that have been produced both virtually and in-person for theatre groups on the West Coast of the United States, and has penned the short films, “Breath of Writing” and “Interview with an Aswang.” Aside from Mixed Asian Media, Lauren has also had writing featured on The Nerds of Color, CAAMedia, PBS, YOMYOMF, and other outlets and publications. 

You can find Lauren on Twitter and Instagram @akolaurenlola and on her website, www.lolabythebay.wordpress.com.