About the Film/Behind the Scenes Video

ACCLAIM FOR TRASH DANCE

“Sublime…a vibrant, moving document” – WASHINGTON POST

“Magical” – THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Inspired and inspiring…Not to be missed!” – PASTE MAGAZINE

“Unbelievable, incredibly beautiful and moving” – BLACKBOOK MAGAZINE

“Captures the human spirit of dance” – HOUSTON CHRONICLE

“Garrison’s thoughtful, eloquent documentary illuminates the reality that all work matters and has dignity, no matter the invisibility of the labor.” – AUSTIN-AMERICAN STATESMAN

“Amazing, inspiring and unexpectedly moving” – Emily Ramshaw, THE TEXAS TRIBUNE

“A Must-See—A joyful, exuberant tale” – LA PRENSA

SYNOPSIS

Choreographer Allison Orr finds beauty and grace in garbage trucks, and in the unseen men and women who pick up our trash. Filmmaker Andrew Garrison follows Orr as she rides along with Austin sanitation workers on their daily routes to observe and later convince them to perform a most unlikely spectacle. On an abandoned airport runway, two dozen trash collectors and their trucks deliver — for one night only — a stunningly beautiful and moving performance, in front of an audience of thousands.

Behind The Scenes Video

FILMMAKER BIOS

ANDREW GARRISON – Director / Producer / Cinematographer

Andrew Garrison is an independent filmmaker based in Austin, Texas, who works in both documentary and fiction. His past films include the documentary feature THIRD WARD TX (2007) and the narrative triptych THE WILGUS STORIES (2000), both of which premiered at SXSW and aired on PBS. Additional films include the award-winning shorts, FAT MONROE (1990) and NIGHT RIDE (1994). Garrison’s work has earned him Guggenheim, Rockefeller, NEA and AFI Fellowships, and his films have screened at Sundance, SXSW, Berlin International Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. He is a Professor of Film and Digital Media Production at The University of Texas at Austin.

ANGELA K. PIRES – Editor

Angela K. Pires has been working with films for longer than her vanity allows her to say. Finding a story hidden behind hours and hours of footage is her most cherished talent, so documentaries are her specialty. “The Prison and The Street” (“Elegantly shot and extremely well-structured documentary… impressive.” – Variety), “Trash Dance” (“Magical” – The New York Times), and “61 Bullets” are some of them. But her experience goes beyond documentaries and includes narrative films, online content and commercials. Her work has been screened in festivals around the globe: Berlin Film Festival, SXSW, Lincoln Center’s New Directors/New Films, AFI Docs, Full Frame, Rotterdam, That’s All True, and Havana among many others.

GRAHAM REYNOLDS – Composer

Called “the quintessential modern composer” by the London Independent, Austin-based composer-bandleader Graham Reynolds creates, performs, and records music for film, theater, dance, rock clubs and concert halls with collaborators ranging from Richard Linklater and Jack Black to DJ Spooky and Ballet Austin. Heard throughout the world in films, on TV, on stage, and on radio, from HBO to Showtime, Cannes Film Festival to the Kennedy Center, and BBC to NPR, he recently scored “Before Midnight” with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, “Bernie” featuring Jack Black, and the Hulu TV series “Up To Speed”. His score to the Robert Downey, Jr. feature “A Scanner Darkly” was named “Best Soundtrack of the Decade,” by Cinema Retro magazine. With the jazz-based but far reaching Golden Arm Trio, Reynolds has repeatedly toured the country and released four critically acclaimed albums. As Co-Artistic Director of Golden Hornet Project with Peter Stopschinski, Reynolds has produced more than fifty concerts of world-premier alt-classical music by more than sixty composers, as well as countless pieces of his own. He is a company member with the internationally acclaimed Rude Mechs and resident composer with Salvage Vanguard Theater, Reynolds last released two albums simultaneously: “The Difference Engine: A Triple Concerto” and “DUKE! Three Portraits of Ellington” on Innova Records with distribution by Naxos, the world’s biggest classical label. Find out more at grahamreynolds.com

CHOREOGRAPHER BIO

ALLISON ORR – Choreographer, Forklift Danceworks

From Venetian gondoliers to firefighters, trained dancers to Elvis Impersonators, maintenance men to women over 65, Allison Orr creates award-winning choreography with all kinds of performers. Defying easy description, Orr’s work challenges audiences to expand notions of dance and performer while posing the question: who and what can be presented on stage? Orr finds the raw material for her work among the stories and everyday experiences of ordinary people, spending months researching and immersing herself in the community she is engaging. Uncovering that which is essential to the life of a community but often goes unnoticed is central in Orr’s work, as she seeks to give voice to people who may be marginalized or frequently overlooked.

Orr was named Best Choreographer of 2003, 2008 and 2013 by the Austin Critics Table, “Best Movement Illuminator” by the Austin Chronicle in 2012, one of Tribeza magazine’s “Top 10 Austinites of 2012,” and one of eight “Extraordinary Texans” by Texas Highways magazine in September 2013. Her large-scale work, The Trash Project, was named a “#1 Arts Event” by the Austin American-Statesman, #1 Dance Event by the Austin Chronicle, and “Most Outstanding Dance Concert” by the Austin Critics Table. Her work has been funded by the City of Austin, the Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the MAP Fund, numerous foundations, and the City of Venice, Italy. She has served as a guest artist for the American College Dance Festival and for numerous university dance departments, and has twice been commissioned to choreograph the kick-off event for Austin’s Fusebox Festival.

Orr is on the dance faculty of Austin Community College and has taught a wide variety of students, including children, adults over 65, and people with disabilities. Before founding Forklift Danceworks, Orr taught dance and studied with MacArthur Award winner Liz Lerman and performed with Robert Moses and Janice Garrett in the San Francisco Bay Area. Orr is a native Texan and holds an MFA in Choreography and Performance from Mills College and a BA in Anthropology from Wake Forest University.

To learn more about Allison and her company Forklift Danceworks visit forkliftdanceworks.org

FUNDERS

TRASH DANCE was made possible in part by the support of the Warren Skaaren Charitable Trust, Humanities TX, Texas Folklife, the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin, the RTF Dept. of the University of Texas at Austin, and the generous support of numerous individuals.