Released on = September 28, 2006, 4:17 pm

Press Release Author = Typecasting Films

Industry = Entertainment

Press Release Summary = \"Becoming Family: A Tsunami Relief Documentary\" world
premieres at the South Asian International Film Festival in New York City on
Saturday, October 7, 2006 at 11:00am at the 62nd and Broadway Cinema in Manhattan -
one showing only.

Press Release Body = LOS ANGELES, CA - September 28, 2006 - The heartwarming and
profound film "Becoming Family: A Tsunami Relief Documentary" featuring the
Grammy-winning song "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" by U2 world premieres
at the South Asian International Film Festival in New York City on Saturday, October
7, 2006 at 11:00am at the 62nd and Broadway Cinema - one showing only.

Directed by Carl Strecker, and produced and starring Muslim-American and Sri
Lankan-born Dr. M. Rahmi Mowjood, the film chronicles a charity medical mission to
Sri Lanka to help the victims of the tragic tsunami that killed 30,000 Sri Lankans
and over 120,000 South Asians on December 26, 2004.

During the trip, Dr. Mowjood mentors the students through the emotionally draining
relief work, shares the hospitality of his Sri Lankan family with the team, and
finds time to become engaged to the woman he'd been courting for six months leading
to a climactic wedding celebration at conclusion of the bittersweet journey.

Filmmaker Carl Strecker who previously directed a short film found that this
documentary was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. "I experienced a life-changing
event," says Strecker. "I witnessed how the world, in fact, could be a better place
if we lend a helping hand. I'm very proud of this film, but I'm also very proud to
have had the opportunity to watch the people in this film do some incredible work."

Filming on location in Sri Lanka was different than anything Strecker had ever
experienced. "I was walking to the Sri Lankan beach when I stopped to talk to a
local villager named Sarath," Strecker remembered. "He was a nice young man,
probably in his late-twenties and after some pleasant small talk I asked if he was
here during the tsunami. 'I lost three daughters,' he replied. 'My mama. My home.
My tut tut (car). My job.' I paused for a long moment. I didn't know what to
say. I said 'I'm so sorry,' but I almost broke down right there. It catches you
off guard," Strecker continued, "these tragedies, the amount of loss these people
experienced, and how hundreds of stories are all right there, around every corner."

Team leader Dr. M. Rahmi Mowjood was born in Sri Lanka before moving to the United
States at the age of one. His story becomes the emotional core of the film as we
realize he is planning to marry a Sri Lankan woman he'd been courting for six
months.

The impressively open access Strecker had to private family discussions between Dr.
Mowjood and his mother Rehana Mowjood, as well as discussions between key elder
members of the Mowjood family as they negotiated the details of his wedding ceremony
allowed director Carl Strecker to include a very vulnerable and human element to the
film.

"I'll always be grateful to the entire Mowjood family," Strecker said. "They
trusted me enough to allow me to be present during stressful and vulnerable moments.
That honesty gives the film an incredibly heartfelt and compelling story that
everyone can relate to."

Dr. Kyle Smart, another team leader, was so inspired by this trip to Sri Lanka that
he became more involved in philanthropic work as a result, traveling to the Gulf
States here in America three times to help with Katrina Relief.

"I hope this film communicates the emotional impact that a relief trip like this has
on its participants, and I hope viewers walk away seeing how we can all do our part
to make the world a better place - that it\'s not scary to take action but wonderful
and rewarding." Filmmaker Carl Strecker continued, "we are, after all, members of
the same important global family."

Carl Strecker spent many of the past years selling advertising for a DVD industry
trade magazine, creating some of the most innovative advertisements anyone had ever
seen. Prior to selling advertising he worked for Disney, Sony, and Paramount, and
while working found time to direct a short film, appear in some small DVD movies and
star in a stage play in Los Angeles.

The film also features original music by talented composer Don Bodin. Sound was
re-recorded at Laser Sound Services, a division of Laser Pacific Media Corporation.
Color-correction was completed at Filmlook, Inc.

Web Site = http://www.typecastingfilms.com/becomingfamily

Contact Details = Publicity
Typecasting Films
8950 W. Olympic Blvd., Suite 286
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
publicity@typecastingfilms.com