Every year New York City is invaded with an army of tree vendors so intense we're inclined to map them, follow them around and read in-depth articles about them. And yet there's still more to discover about how this whole operation works—meet the Tree Throwers. After all, these Christmas trees on the corner don't just grow on trees.
In the long trip that trees make to big city apartments (and, eventually, mulchfest) a big moment is the when they are unloaded from trucks and set up on the street. Though "unloaded" is a generous way to put it. "Chucked off a truck like corpses and dragged onto the sidewalk by exhausted tree sellers," which is how filmmaker Elif Alp describes it, is probably more accurate.
And after witnessing just such an unloading last Christmas, Alp decided to talk to some of the guys who deliver green to New York City in December. "The trick about the tree deliveries is that they are unannounced," Alp explains. "The sellers just have to be on guard all night for the potential of a delivery":
"It's a good job, you get to see the city," one thrower explains before going on a nice aside about the different stars you see in the city. And the tossers weren't the only people Alp talked to in the Christmas business. Tree throwers are just the folk who led her to her eventual muses, itinerant tree sellers Bekha and Rich. For the last year she's been tracking them on their non-Christmas travels around the world and promises more updates in the future.
