A new documentary aims to do more than elicit tears and laughter, though its producers say it has caused plenty of those: It’s out to help U.S.-based Korean families see relatives still in North Korea.

Directed by Jason Ahn, Divided Families is a documentary based on interviews with 17 people separated from family members in North Korea, either by the Korean War or the initial separation following the end of World War II in 1945. Korean-Americans’ separation from North Korean family members may have been caused by a number of things: The outbreak of war broke off contact between those on opposite sides of the DMZ, while others were forcibly taken to the North after its 1950 invasion of the South, and some South Korean military personnel have been trapped there as POWs.