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This project successfully funded on 31st March 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Nucleus documentary
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
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Aim
Nucleus is a hybrid feature documentary unpacking the unending and urgent humanitarian legacy of nuclear weapons testing on our lives.
Who we are
We're a team of storytellers, dreamers, and documentary filmmakers who need your help to complete our ambitious feature on the human legacy of nuclear weapons testing.
Directed by James Thomson, Nucleus will orbit the lives of our contributors Diana (Kazakhstan), Alan (UK) and Hinamoeura (French Polynesia), whose lives have all been deeply affected by nuclear test explosions, as they work together to overcome the emotional and physical consequences of these experiments.
Background
The US and Russia are openly debating plans to resume nuclear testing for the first time in 30 years. Until the mid 90s, nuclear tests were conducted globally with little to no concern for communities or servicemen. Most of these 2056 blasts unleashed energy thousands of times larger than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, and released radioactivity that damaged people’s health and contaminated the environment, which scientists believe will lead to 2.4 million additional deaths globally.
Nucleus began its life as a Documentary Photography project in Newport, Wales. Ten years later, it grew potential as a film when we secured a Screen Scotland grant that we've now exhausted over five years of research, development and recce shoots in Europe and the US. As we sleepwalk into the Third Nuclear Age, the clock is ticking for us to step up and imagine the unimaginable.
The idea
Unlike other ‘talking heads’ docs on the topic, Nucleus will take viewers on a journey through macro visions, sonic frequencies we cannot hear, and liminal worlds co-created with our contributors. Anchored by the UN Headquarters in New York, a network of listening stations will transport us between our contributor's time here and their experiences back home.
Leaving the paralysing mushroom clouds behind, our cinematic language will draw on metaphor to depict a world at odds with itself. When humanity creates such dark and destructive forces, where does it find the light to redeem itself? Nucleus is a testament to our capacity for finding love and hope in the darkest place. A letter to future generations who motivate us to fight for that light.
Our contributors
Our contributors come from a cross section of communities, generations and continents. We met Alan, founder of LABRATS, 5 years ago at a reunion of British atomic veterans. Our partners ICAN then introduced us to Diana (above), a 4th generation survivor of testing in the Kazakh Steppe, and Hinamoeura (below), a Mum and MP living with leukaemia after years of nuclear violence in the Pacific.
After self-funding shoots with our contributors at the UN Headquarters in March, we're seeking to fund the next phase of production to highlight how nuclear testing has impacted their families and communities back home. United by the disproportionate effects of this radioactive legacy, we will show how threats to restart nuclear testing ignore their histories, but embolden our contributors.
Why do we need your help?
To raise the possibility that the risks and costs of nuclear testing are understood and honestly debated, we need YOU, our vital backers, to complete our documentary-making journey, and help move us one step closer to the finish line. If we overshoot our goal and hit £20k, Crowdfunder will donate an extra £1000. So, please take a look at our rewards and invest what you can.
We are also exploring match-funding options with Screen Scotland that could double what we raise here. Doing so would catapult us into production in 2026, starting with Alan (above) as he journeys to a national archive to locate his father's medical records withheld by the UK government. Our small crew will then travel to French Polynesia and Kazakhstan to complete production with Hina and Diana.
What are these sequences?
Our creative sequences will explore the dreams, realities and possibilities of our contributor's work beyond the urgent and unnerving headlines of today. These liminal spaces will inhabit their own cinematic language, inviting viewers to journey through their backstories and motivations for addressing the UN Headquarters.
To help us workshop and realise these visions carefully with our contributors, a specialist facilitator from charity Film in Mind will be hired to guide this work. They will help us to decolonise the process of collaboration, while making sure that the mental health of our cast and crew is properly supported.
What your funding support will be allocated to:
- Collaborative workshops: A series of workshops with our three main contributors to creatively explore and shape how their stories are imagined on screen. Your funding will allow us to bring in a qualified counsellor and facilitator from Film in Mind, a charity dedicated to promoting healthier documentary film productions.
- Production costs: From equipment hire to insurances, crew fees, carnets, visas, travel, food, and accommodation for filming between February and July 2026. Covering these costs will help us to realise the workshopped ideas and enable the production of sequences to be shot in the UK, French Polynesia and Kazakhstan.
- Music composition: We will team up with the Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra to create a vibrant live score that animates seismic and infrasonic data from CTBTO listening stations pictured in our contributor’s homelands. Your money will pay for the musician's time and help pay for the recording studio sessions.
- Editing sample scenes: Funding will also help us to bring on board Sundance Award Winning editor, Emiliano Battista, to combine our existing footage with our new sequences to craft a compelling proof-of-concept and rough cut. We can then pitch in 2026 to funders and catapult Nucleus toward completion.
Risks and Challenges
Producing a documentary requires time, research, and trust. Due to the sensitive nature of nuclear weapons testing, safeguarding our contributors, our team, and audience is paramount. Nucleus aims to empower contributors by accurately reflecting their stories, avoiding re-traumatisation and ensuring their control over their narratives. All key crew members will adhere to the Nuclear Truth Project Protocols - prioritising rights, respect, and reciprocity towards our key contributors.
Our film will avoid traumatising imagery like archival footage of bomb tests for this reason. Recognising the geopolitical sensitivity, precautions will be taken during production to minimise risks by teaming up with local producers when filming abroad. Documentary filmmaking, especially multi-location projects, comes with many financial challenges. This crowdfunder will cover essential expenses for a rough cut, key for securing further funding to bring Nucleus to life.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made