Road to Sunrise

Olivia begins her life facing the challenge of a physical disability, and at age 12, finds her life dramatically changed after the death of her mother in the late 1950s. Having been sheltered by the closeness of a large extended family, she and her 11-year-old brother Lenny suddenly find themselves with an uncertain future living with their self-centered father, as their older brother Benjy goes off to join the army.

The frustrated children shuttle between Brooklyn and the familys upstate home in Liberty, New York, while Olivia struggles to balance her complicated life as a teenager with adult responsibilities. Strong family ties and the house that bonds her with fifteen close cousins, strengthen Olivias fortitude to deal with the trials she encounters on the road ahead.

With the backdrop of Americas growing pains in the 1950s and 60s, Olivia relives her life from a young girls perspective, through post-war economic growth, fear of nuclear war, ramifications of the McCarthy Era, the civil rights movement, the assassination of a president and the Vietnam War. School days, girlfriends, boyfriends and the birth of rock and roll, enrich her story of hardships, tragedy, and extraordinary childhood experiences.

Road to Sunrise takes us traveling from the busy streets of Brooklyn, NY to the tranquil Catskill Mountains in an emotionally charged journey from idyllic early childhood, through turbulent adolescence and teen years, to the hopes and dreams of a young woman.