Six months after the deadly tsunami hit South Asia on December 26, 2004, Muslim-American and Sri Lankan-born Dr. M. Rahmi Mowjood led a team of American doctors and medical students on a relief trip to his homeland. While aiding villagers in a foreign land, surrounded by devastation and uncertainty, the team emotionally connects with those less fortunate, and discovers that, as citizens of the same small planet, we’re not so different at all. From first-time director Carl Strecker comes BECOMING FAMILY, a poignant, heart-rending festival favorite documentary making its DVD debut on March 17 for $14.95SRP…only from Cinevolve Studios.
LOS ANGELES, CA -- Six months after the deadly tsunami hit South Asia on December 26, 2004, Muslim-American and Sri Lankan-born Dr. M. Rahmi Mowjood led a team of American doctors and medical students on a relief trip to his homeland. While aiding villagers in a foreign land, surrounded by devastation and uncertainty, the team emotionally connects with those less fortunate, and discovers that, as citizens of the same small planet, we’re not so different at all. From first-time director Carl Strecker comes BECOMING FAMILY, a poignant, heart-rending festival favorite documentary making its DVD debut on March 17 for $14.95SRP…only from Cinevolve Studios.
Two weeks after the two tsunamis created by a 9.0 earthquake barreled into the Sri Lankan shoreline, killing 30,000 and displacing 1.5 million, Dr. Mowjood, a family medicine practitioner from Rancho Cucamonga, California, departed for his birthplace to provide immediate assistance to the ravaged coastline. Although exhausting and bittersweet, Mowjood was determined to return again as the leader of a larger group with a two-fold mission: to provide assistance to those still suffering and to propose to a Sri Lankan woman he’d been courting since his first trip. After raising the funds, and successfully assembling a team of three doctors, seven first-year medical students and Dr. Mowjood’s mother (who was handling logistics), they embarked on a humanitarian mission to a country utterly destroyed by one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history.
Setting up in the village of Seenigama on the property of humanitarian Kushil Gunaskera (also the manager of Muttiah Muralidaran, the Sri Lankan “Michael Jordan” of cricket), the team begins to see patients. And though conditions are cramped, and the humidity is stifling, the young med students and doctors immediately recognize the impact and value of their philanthropic journey across the world. At the same, following his engagement to Nuzhath Hafsa, tensions begin to rise between Dr. Mowjood and his mother over unfamiliar terrain concerning the wedding, family negotiations and cultural traditions. And, from refugee camps, where the height of true suffering is on full display, to Dr. Mowjood’s joyous 300-person Sri Lankan wedding, audiences are taken on an emotional and captivating journey, ultimately revealing the true circle of life in a powerful and ultimately unforgettable film.
Shot on location in the southern villages of Sri Lanka, BECOMING FAMILY captured the 2007 Top Applause Award at 12th Annual International Family Film Festival, held in Los Angeles.
Cinevolve Studios, based in Los Angeles, was founded in 2007 by a collective of independent filmmakers and entertainment industry professionals with a common goal: to fill a niche as an innovative, filmmaker-friendly distributor offering compelling, critically-acclaimed and entertaining narrative feature films, documentaries and special interest products to consumers through a variety of distribution channels. Upcoming films include the Venezuelan Oscar® submission for Best Foreign Film, El Tinte de la Fama and 12 in a Box, an award-winning British black comedy, with a US theatrical release slated for June 2009. For more information, visit www.cinevolvestudios.com.
