When the pandemic hit in 2020, documentary filmmaker David Siev moved back home to the small town of Bad Axe, Michigan, where his family owns a restaurant. He began to film, little knowing how much drama would unfold around the family and its business., premiering in documentary competition at SXSW, initially chronicles the family’s efforts to keep the restaurant going amid Covid shutdowns and restrictions.
Covid was tough enough, especially when some customers in the conservative and overwhelmingly white community objected to state mandates to wear masks in public spaces. But then, after the Black Lives Matter protests surged in response to the killing of George Floyd, things really got tense in Bad Axe. Jaclyn and her mom Rachel took part in a BLM demonstration that got ugly when aggressive Trump supporters and a group of neo-Nazis confronted demonstrators.