From Co-Directors Christine Nyhart and Angela Stern, and starring C. Thomas Howell, the new independent comedy feature film Because We’re Family, follows the dysfunctionality that ensues between three siblings who come together to deal with the sudden loss of their mother.
While Dallas and Kourtney have been coping with their mother’s death for over a month, their youngest sibling, Belinda finally returns from Tibet in time to collectively witness their mother’s cremation. Â The three then return to their childhood home to live and grieve together for the holidays.
All dressed up to take their kids out for trick or treating on Halloween, Belinda surprises the siblings by announcing that she is planning to take their mothers ashes to her home country of Trinidad per her final wishes. Dallas and Kourtney are sure she should stay right on the mantle in their family home and think their sister is up to her usual outlandish ways. After a few weeks of arguing leads to a Thanksgiving blowout, Dallas kicks Belinda out of the house, and she is forced to spend time down the street, in a run-down hotel, alone.
As Christmas approaches, and Kourtney is cleaning out her mother’s closet, she discovers that Belinda was right all along about her mother’s final wish.
Reunited under one roof to celebrate the Christmas holiday, the family realizes that some holiday traditions are just too difficult to digest