The documentary film "Trash Dance," filmed by local filmmaker Andrew Garrison, will premier 7 p.m. May 3 at the Violet Crown Cinema, 434 W. Second St.

"It's special because it helps all of us understand the beauty and professionalism and personal lives of people who are picking up our trash, our composting, and our recycling all across the city," said Councilwoman Laura Morrison. "It helps us understand the art in what they do, and most of all, I think it really opens up people's eyes to what's going on around them every day."

In 2006, Orr was begin to piece together a project featuring Austin Resource Recovery workers when she met up with Garrison, who filmed the creation of the dance. Orr said she likes to create works with people who wouldn't normally be viewed as dancers to help bring awareness to their function in society.

"I'm particularly interested in working with people whose jobs are critical to a community's life and well-being, but are often behind the scenes and invisible," Orr said.

Garrison said the film plays along that same theme of highlighting the work and significance of those around us and hopes the audience takes away various messages after seeing the film.

"One of them is the dignity of all our work," Garrison said. "The people that you don't even think about are, or maybe as you think about doing the lowest of the low work, are very serious about it, are very committed, and actually have a really great job and a great attitude about their job."

Austin Resource Recovery employees were dancers in the performance and part of the film.

Anthony Phillips, an employee with Austin Resource Recovery and dancer in the film, said it was not just the audience that was affected by the performance.

"It actually brought all of us together in a way that we've never bonded before," Phillips said. "Not just with my department, but with every other department. When we actually started working on this, it was so much of just every department working individually that we never got to see what [everybody else was] doing. So we never got to see it until the day of performance which made everybody so surprised about it."

The film is expected to run from May 3-9 at the Violet Crown. For more information on the film, visit www.trashdancemovie.com and for information about the showings and tickets, visit www.violetcrowncinema.com.