Help Us Bring Kosuzu to America and Tell a Story with the Potential for Global Impact

My name is Ari Beser, and I’m making a documentary shaped by two families linked through the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

My grandfather, Jacob Beser, flew on both missions.

For the last 15 years I have been meeting eye witnesses and documenting their stories of surviving the atomic bombs. Eventually I met Kosuzu Harada. Her grandfather, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, survived both.

After more than twelve years of dialogue and shared work, Kosuzu Harada and I will travel to the United States together for the first time. This trip is a major moment not just for both of our families, but for the global conversation around nuclear weapons at a time when the threat is rising again. Our role is to stand up together against nuclear weapons by supporting work that brings these stories to the forefront. That’s what this project does. Through The Nuclear Family, Kosuzu and I speak not only to the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, but also to what can actually be done about them.

Everyone is living under the reality of nuclear weapons. This isn’t something that affects only governments or experts — it affects all of us.

Watch our concept trailer here: https://vimeo.com/1124434935/8536c6ff8f?fl=pl&fe=sh

To make this possible, we need partners.

Your support will help bring Kosuzu to America and fund our journey across U.S. nuclear sites, places that reveal the full timeline of nuclear history and force both of us to confront not only the past, but the identities and legacies we carry into the future. This project is about healing generational trauma, human responsibility, and the larger questions facing American and Japanese societies right now.

Your contribution will also support the award-winning filmmaking team behind this project, people who will not only bring this story to life, but have the skill and experience to shape it into a film with true global reach and impact.

The Nuclear Family will document this journey honestly: what we inherited, what we’re still trying to understand, and what it means to have these conversations publicly at a moment when they matter more than ever.

Your support will fund:

Travel for Kosuzu’s first visit to the U.S.

Filming across nuclear history sites

Production, translation, and post-production

Archival materials and licensing

Our award-winning filmmaking team

Public screenings and community conversations in both countries

If you believe these stories can move people, and that they can push the global conversation forward, we’d be grateful to have you with us.

Thank you for your support.

— Ari