The OHA annual meeting will open with a screening of the documentary film TRASH DANCE. In the film, 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, Texas 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, who are awed to discover how in the world a garbage truck can “dance.”
Andrew Garrison will speak and show the film on Wednesday evening, October 14. Garrison is an independent filmmaker based in Austin who works in both documentary and fiction. His most recent film is TRASH DANCE (2012), winner of several festival awards including Special Jury Recognition at its premiere at SXSW, and the unprecedented winner of the Audience Award for Best Feature Documentary at both the AFI Silverdocs Film Festival and the Full Frame Film Festival. His previous films include the documentary THIRD WARD TX (2007), and the narrative triptych THE WILGUS STORIES (2000), both of which premiered at SXSW and aired on PBS, and the award-winning shorts, FAT MONROE (1990) and NIGHT RIDE (1994). Garrison’s work has earned him Guggenheim, Rockefeller, NEA and AFI Fellowships. 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 an Associate Professor of Film and Digital Media Production at The University of Texas at Austin. Garrison is the founder of the East Austin Stories documentary project, an ongoing documentary collaboration between U.T. student filmmakers and residents and businesses in communities in East Austin.
