Tom Gomizelj

During his studies, he and a group of friends founded the Soft Landing Allies Association as a response to the deadness of cultural events for young people at the time and the general insensitivity to the plight of others. They were active mainly in the field of youth culture and the organization of summer camps for refugee children. In order to document the events, the society acquired its first video camera, but soon realized that knowledge would also be needed to make their films interesting to a wider audience. In 1998-1999, Tom attended film seminars - laboratories at JSKD in Ljubljana, where he learned the basics of film language. A combination of circumstances led to the fact that in 2001 Tom Gomizelj and Boris Petkovič organized the first serious training at the DZMP - a several-month series of weekend workshops "Your Own Film". More than 15 young people from all over Posavije applied for the public call, and most of them later became the core of the film section of the association. During the filming of their first film, when a simple social mini DV camera was available to them, and the microphone was attached to a fishing rod with duct tape, Tina and Nina Vareško kept repeating: "Luxury, luxury...". This is how the name Luksuz production was born.

Tom Gomizelj has been running Luksuz production since the beginning and deals with everything necessary; with the design of projects, with administration, with the search for funds, mentors, colleagues as well as the participants themselves and the entire promotion. Every year, together with his colleagues, he organizes a series of 20-30 workshops both for elementary school students and slightly older young people. Throughout Slovenia, they cooperate with schools, youth centers, PUMs, festivals... During these years, they have built a network of organizations and individuals throughout Europe, with whom they cooperate in various projects here as well as sending young people abroad. In all these years, more than 1,500 young people from different countries participated in their training in the field of film. The number of short films under which Tom Gomizelj is signed as a producer is around seven hundred, about half of which are documentaries. He doesn't even know the exact number.

Perhaps the most recognizable project he leads is the international documentary film workshop, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. Every year, they manage to attract 30-40 young people, who create short films for two weeks under the guidance of experienced mentors. Among the mentors is the famous director Želimir Žilnik, who returns every year and shares his rich knowledge and experience with generations of young film enthusiasts. Usually between 15 and 25 short films are created, and at least a few of them also experience a rich festival life. Every year they also receive several awards at various festivals around the world. At the 16th Slovenian Film Festival in Portorož, Luksuz production or Tom Gomizelj received the Vesna prize for special achievements for "a series of engaging documentary interventions in which they bring the film to the street and the street to the film".

We will watch a selection of short documentaries that were created from 2003 to 2023 in various projects of Luksuz production. Most of them have in common that they discover the stories of many-times ignored individuals.