DOING DAWN

$5.40 – $15.00

Doing Dawn is the story of five young pilgrims who travel to the Gallipoli Peninsula for the ANZAC day commemorations. Based on interviews with actual travellers and and Turkish soldiers, Doing Dawn is a searing confrontation of the baby boomer, anti-war rhetoric that has dominated recent debates about attendance of increasing numbers of young people to the site. Instead, Doing Dawn gives angry, poignant, confused and hilarious voice to the reasons for the pilgrims journeys, finding that the reasons young people go are as various as their diverse identities and politics.

For some, the initial impulse is no more than the 'Big Day Out goes to Turkey' or an overseas gathering of ex-pat Aussie travellers. But once at the commemorations, something happens, not always predictable and sometimes even surreal, and identities are challenged, changed and shifted by a confrontation with the past.

Using direct address, theatrical time and reality shifts, songs, drama and Turkish language, Doing Dawn is a cry to be heard from a generation who are more preached to than heard from. It is an often surprising, confronting and moving insight into the concerns of Australian young adults and, more importantly, also gives voice to the Turks who host the event.

APT