The Grand Illusion

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 stay in business, stay involved, and stay alive.

*WINNER – AUDIENCE AWARD – SXSW*
*WINNER – SPECIAL JURY RECOGNITION FOR EXCEPTIONAL INTIMACY – SXSW*
*WINNER – GRAND JURY PRIZE – LA ASIAN PACIFIC FILM FESTIVAL*

“A deeply personal film that feels essential when we tell the story of how 2020 shaped this country.” Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com