Garbage men. Garbage women. They swarm out daily to eliminate the excrement of the good life from the metropolitan circuits. The film documents the thorny path from a Viennese civil servant's comfortable life into the Privatopia of Greater Los Angeles. Our protagonists are five trash collectors. They live in Vienna, Genova, Amsterdam, New York and Los Angeles. We will present their stories caught in the tensions of social and urban development. the character of the city landscapes, the sophistication of machines and the degreee of social and union organization intertwine, giving garbage collection its distinctive face. Each worker must seek his fortune in his own way. The hero is the one who successfully deflects the increasing brutality of everyday life away from himself. There is no progress, only recycling of ideas. The film deals with the future of labor. Incorporating classic montage techniques, staged, stylized and without commentary, Daydream Nation is nonetheless clearly recongnizable as "our" attempt to "excavate the future" from the garbage of the Western World.