Javier Gómez Serrano (1961)

He graduated from the prestigious School of Film and Television of UCLA University of California, in Los Angeles where he also studied editing at USC with Thomas Stanford (West Side Story) and cinematography with John A. Alonzo (Chinatown). 

In 1990 he funded elegantmob, responsible for his first feature film Believe in Eve (1991).

He lived fifteen years in United States where he worked as production assistant, loader, camera, editor, sound mixer, photographer, producer and director in film and television. In 1987 produced a documentary about displaced people in war-torn El Salvador with Ellen Kuras and Kris Kristofferson. He produced public service programming for the State of California (Anti smoke campaign for youths, special operation forces of the LAPD with Silver Pictures), collaborated with National Geographic in a documentary about the Inca treasures of Sipan, worked as a cameraman for German TV RTL in the US, as well as in music formats and soap pilots for Telemundo and Univisión, and music videos for the record label EMI (Gloria Estefan, Julio Iglesias, Plácido Domingo, El Puma, Carlos Vives, Ricky Martín, Marta Sánchez, among others.)

Back in Spain in 1996, he started to work as story editor for BRB International in several animation series such as David el Gnomo, Supermodels, or Nicolas. Later became Head of TV Development for the newly formed Morena Films, where he coordinated many entertainment programs and documentaries (Portman, Caballé, Looking for Fidel or Arafat directed by Oliver Stone, etc.)

Since 2003, he has developed, produced and directed socially relevant documentaries and TV programming, and count to this date with a catalogue of more than sixty hours of programming that has aired on national and international televisions, shown at theatres and selected in numerous festivals around the world: City of Wait (2003), Looking for Hackers (2005), A Sea in Between (2006), The Honor of the Wronged, The Color of a Vote, March 11, when the Word took the Streets (2007), One Hundred Meters Away (2008 IDFA Selection) and Unit 8 (2008).

He has directed and produced Shipwreck (2010), (world premiered at DOCSDF) «direct cinema» centered on the lives of shipyard workers in Bangladesh, and Accidental Home (2011), a close look at a newly formed orphanage in Uganda followed by The Exodus of the Rohingya People (2011) narrated by writer/journalist John Carlin, Copyright, or the Right to Copy and Dhallywood Stories (2011) [his last feature length documentary film available on iTunes, Amazon & Vudu].

He created and directed the non-fiction series Crimes & Misdemeanors (2012) (AKA Artículo 24) for the Pay TV Channel Crime & Investigation (A&E), and he was commissioned two films for KSMQ Public Media in Minnesota: Prison Writers and Great’s Children (2015) for their on going series Off 90, and the film Que suene la Música (Let the Music Play) (2019) on the independent music scene in Spain, commissioned by UFI [Union Fonográfica Independiente] which was aired on El Pais TV

For the last 5 years he has been fully dedicated to create and produce hundreds of testimonial short videos, between 90 seconds and 5 minutes long, shot on location throughout the world to showcase the benefits of an ERP software solution when applied to a very diverse body of small and medium size industries.

His work as a documentary filmmaker has allowed him to put in play many of the technical but more importantly, social skills required to work with multitude of common folk, reluctant at times to be in front of cameras and mics, and to get the best of them, listening to them and then recording their experiences and their feelings. His non obtrusive way of approaching his characters and his technical expertise to adapt to most situations are the signature of his most recent work.

Filmografía

2019
Que suene la música. Documentary. Spain. 54 min.
Produced for UFI (Unión Fonográfica Independiente). Aired at El País TV.

2018
AJFS 20 Años después. Documentary, Spain. 54 min.
Malayaka Stories. Documentary shorts. Uganda. 5-7 min.

2015
GREAT’s Children. Documentary, Minnesota, USA. 10 min. Produced for KSMQ Public Media.
Prison Writers. Documentary, Minnesota USA. 12 min. Produced for KSMQ Public Media.

2014
Accidental Home: Five years later. Documentary. Entebbe, Uganda. 10 min.
Produced for Canal Odisea.

Dual Careers. Documentary short, Spain. 7 min. Produced for AJFS.
Dim Sun by Zebadiah Scanlan. Art video, Minnesota. 5 min.

2012
Artículo 24. Non-Fiction TV Serie, Spain. 12×30 min.
Produced for Crime & Investigation Channel.

2011
Dhallywood Stories. Documentary, Bangladesh. 70 min. Produced for Canal Odisea.
Copyright, or the Right to Copy. Documentary, Spain. 56 min. Produced for TVE.
The Exodus of the Rohingya. Documentary, Bangladesh. 26 min. Narrated by John Carlin,
Produced for Canal Odisea.

2010
Shipwreck. Documentary, Bangladesh. 56 min. TVE & Canal Odisea.
Accidental Home. Documentary, Uganda. 46 min. Canal Odisea.

2003-2009
Unit 8. Documentary, Spain. 56 min. Canal Odisea.
One Hundred Meters Away. Documentary, Morocco, Spain. 66 min. TVE.
March 11th, When the Word took the Streets. Documentary, Spain. 52 min.
Producido para La Sexta TV
The Color of a Vote. Documentary, Spain. 52 min. La Sexta TV.
Off Side. TV Program, Germany. 14×30 min. La Sexta TV.
A Sea in Between. Documentary, Spain. 52 min. Canal Odisea.
Looking for Hackers. Documentary, Spain. 52 min. Canal Odisea.
City of Wait. Documentary, Morocco. 56 min. Canal Odisea.

1984-1991
Believe in Eve. Feature length film, Los Angeles. 87 min.
An Unhappy Ending.  Short film, Los Angeles. 11 min.
The Forbidden Land. Documentary, Narrated by Kris Kristofferson, DP Ellen Kuras,
El Salvador. 30 min.
Asesinato. Experimental film, Los Angeles. 02 min.
Blue Woman. Experimental film, Los Angeles. 03 min.
A Love Song? Documentary short, Los Angeles. 05 min.
So What Do We Do? Experimental short, Los Angeles. 10 min.
Soy un Jíbaro campesino. Documentary, Ohio, USA. 30 min.