Warm light falls on a crane truck in a rainy Austin airstrip. The operator keeps his grip firm and steady. He turns the machine’s rounded claw into the outstretched hand of a dancer.
The First Tuesday Film Series will host the San Marcos premiere of the documentary “Trash Dance” at 7 p.m. on June 3 at the Price Center. The film follows choreographer Allison Orr as she befriends dozens of Austin sanitation workers and convinces them to participate in a one-night-only performance.
In 2009, Orr spent a year getting to know dozens of Austin sanitation workers. Her goal was to convince city employees to help her create a unique dance performance that utilized the same movements and machines they used daily at work. A week before the project began, Orr met Andrew Garrison, an Austin-based filmmaker and professor emeritus of UT Austin, who started documenting the journey.
Garrison heard about Orr’s other projects, such as “The King & I,” which featured five Elvis impersonators. In the past, Garrison filmed one of Orr’s mentors, Liz Lerman, and initially thought that documenting Orr would be a good chance to develop his camerawork. After finishing up another documentary, he ran into a friend who asked about his next big project.
“I said, ‘Well, there’s this choreographer I want to meet, Allison Orr. She does interesting stuff,’” Garrison said. “And he said, ‘Oh, that’s my wife. I can introduce you.’”
When Garrison learned about Orr’s project with the city sanitation workers, he became much more invested. The project was no longer just about Orr, but about her and the community. Garrison’s mother had been a union organizer in the city where he grew up, and that relationship had sparked a curiosity in him.
“[My mother] had said the sanitation workers were always the strongest, the most militant — they were great,” Garrison said. “I wanted to show them, I wanted to meet them, I wanted to find out what goes on for them and hear how they talk about their jobs.”
First Tuesday, founded in May 2023, was created for the community. Jeffrey Brown, First Tuesday founder and curator, said he felt there weren’t many events in town for his fellow filmmakers to show their work. More than filmmakers, Brown said he hopes First Tuesday can bring audiences together.
“I watch films at home all the time, but you cannot replace seeing a film on the big screen with a large audience,” Brown said. “So, either call me a purist, old-fashioned or whatever you want. I still think that that’s worth bringing folks together at least once a month for fabulous films that will never play in the cinema.”
One of the ways the event brings people together is through the Q&As, which often include the film’s creator and a local community leader. For “Trash Dance,” this leader is Texas State theatre, dance and film professor Ana Baer Carrillo, a founding member of Merge Dance Company and WECreate Productions and a co-director of The Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema. She also attended the original performance of Trash Dance.
“[Trash Dance] was an incredible experience,” Baer Carrillo said. “It’s beautiful, community-based and trying to see the choreography in every day’s movement and every day’s life. It was impactful. It was very effective. It was very beautiful.”
“Trash Dance” will premiere in San Marcos at 7 p.m. on June 3 at The Price Center at 222 W San Antonio St. The screening will feature a post-film Q&A with Garrison and Baer Carrillo. For more information and tickets, visit https://firsttuesdaysmtx.com/.
