And the Trees Danced Below has premiered on NOWNESS ASIA, the regional edition of the global film platform NOWNESS, which showcases outstanding work across film, art, culture, design, fashion, and music while championing both emerging and established creative voices.
The short film was created during Alternativa Teen Lab 2024, which brought together Uzbek teenagers curious about visual storytelling under the mentorship of filmmakers Kirill Kulagin and Lena Vanina. Together, they explored their innermost dreams. But these are more than flights of fantasy—each dream reveals the realities the young people navigate and the quiet ways they respond to them. Through a unique creative process, every participant became both the protagonist and the director of their own dream. The teenagers developed the visual concepts, scouted locations, and collaborated on one another's shoots.
