Jan Zajíček (born 4 March 1977) is a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

and artist.

Early life

Jan Zajíček was born on 4 March 1977 in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. He studied fine art at the Václav Hollar School of Art and film directing at the

Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague () or FAMU is a film school in Prague, Czech Republic, founded in 1946 as one of three branches of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. It is the fifth oldest film school in ...

(FAMU). In 1992, he began to create graffiti art, one of the earliest graffiti artists in

(under the pseudonym "Scarf" or "Skarf"). His experience with

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

later influenced his strongly visual cinematic style, characterised by its combination of

live-action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games or ...

with

animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

and

visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated as VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action fo ...

. Between 1993 and 2000, he was a member of the Czech hip hop group WWW, which played in Prague venues including Alterna Komotovka, RC Bunkr, ROXY, and Rock Café, and in 1996 supported

Sinéad O'Connor Shuhada' Sadaqat (born Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor; , ; 8 December 1966 – 26 July 2023) was an Irish singer, songwriter, record producer and activist. Her debut studio album, ''The Lion and the Cobra'', was released in 1987 and achieve ...

. During his studies and after graduation, he was a lecturer of experimental audio-visual production at the

Josef Škvorecký Josef Škvorecký (; September 27, 1924 – January 3, 2012) was a Czech-Canadian writer and publisher. He spent half of his life in Canada, publishing and supporting banned Czech literature during the communist era. Škvorecký was awarded the ...

Literary Academy. Since 2010, he has been a resident at the

MeetFactory MeetFactory is a non-profit organization and contemporary art centre in Prague, Czech Republic. It has four departments (music, theatre, gallery, and artists-in-residence) and the rest of the program is focused on interdisciplinary and educatio ...

Contemporary Art Centre.

Career

Music videos

Zajíček has directed several award winning music videos. His first video, for the song "Známka punku" (The Sign of Punk) by the Czech punk band Visací zámek, was named Best Music Video of the Year by the Czech Music Academy. Other videos that received attention included "Days Will Never Be the Same", and "Meleme, meleme kávu" (Grinding the Coffee) by Czech hip hop artists Hugo Toxxx and Vladimir 518, which received ''Filter'' magazine's award for Best Music Video of the Year, and was selected by the

International Short Film Festival Oberhausen The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, founded in 1954, is one of the oldest short film festivals in the world. Held in Oberhausen, it is one of the major international platforms for the short form. The festival holds an International ...

for screening during its MuVi programme in 2010.

Theatre and stage design

From 2004 to 2013, Zajíček worked as a director and animator with several theatre groups, including Theatre XXL, VerTeDance, the National Theatre and the State Opera. In 2012, he created video content for the 60 metre screen at the Czech House for the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, United Kingdom. Along with Tomáš Mašín, he was also the co-director of Czech rock band Lucie's 2014 concert tour.

Film

In 2003, Zajíček produced a short experimental student film, ''The End of the Individual'' (), a study of the social structure of society on a model of one's own death. The film is a combination of 3D animation and

with a non-linear narrative. The film received several awards and was received positively internationally. In 2010, he created the short video montage ''Polys'' and contributed to the Czech pavilion at

Expo 2010 Expo 2010, officially the Expo 2010 Shanghai China, was held on both banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China, from 1 May to 31 October 2010. It was a major World Expo registered by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), in the ...

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. He has also directed several commercials (for

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

ING Ing, ING or ing may refer to: Art and media * '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film * i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group * The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'' * "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 199 ...

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine giv ...

Skoda Auto Škoda means "pity" in the Czech language, Czech and Slovak languages. It may also refer to: Czech brands and enterprises * Škoda Auto, automobile and previously bicycle manufacturer in Mladá Boleslav ** Škoda Motorsport, the division of Ško ...

Kia Motors Kia Corporation (, formerly known as Kyungsung Precision Industry (京城精密工業) and Kia Motors Corporation) is a South Korean multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, ...

) and co-edited several documentaries. In 2011, he edited a documentary about the impact of corporate psychopaths upon society, and how the overuse of anti-depressants can result in erratic behavior; entitled ''I Am Fishead'', it featured

Peter Coyote Peter Coyote (born Robert Peter Cohon; October 10, 1941) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, and narrator of films, theater, television, and audiobooks. He worked on films, such as ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982), '' C ...

Philip Zimbardo Philip George Zimbardo (; March 23, 1933 – October 14, 2024) was an American psychologist and a professor at Stanford University. He was an internationally known educator, researcher, author and media personality in psychology who authored mo ...

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...

Nicholas Christakis Nicholas A. Christakis ( ) (born May 7, 1962) is a Greek American sociologist and physician known for his research on social networks and on the social, economic, biological, and evolutionary determinants of human welfare (including the behavio ...

, Robert D. Hare and Christopher J. Lane. He was a co-creator (with rapper Vladimir 518) of the Czech TV documentary series ''Kmeny'' (Tribes), about urban subcultures, and in 2015, he wrote and directed the show's episode about

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals and solves problems by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hackersomeone with knowledge of bug (computing), bugs or exp ...

s. In 2016, he wrote and co-directed (with the female Czech graffiti artist Sany) a documentary about female graffiti entitled ''Girl Power'', the first documentary on this topic. It starred

Martha Cooper Martha Cooper is an American photojournalist. She worked as a staff photographer for the ''New York Post'' during the 1970s. She is best known for documenting the New York City graffiti scene of the 1970s and 1980s. In 1984, Cooper and Henry Cha ...

Lady Pink Lady Pink, born Sandra Fabara (born 1964), is an Ecuadorian-born American graffiti and mural artist, active in New York City. Early life Fabara was born in Ambato, Ecuador in 1964, and moved to the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York wh ...

, and others, and was screened at cinemas and festivals all around the globe.

Awards

* 1999 – Eurovideo 99 Malaga - Honorable Mention (won) / Caramel Is Sugar That Will Never Recover () * 2002 – FAMU Festival - Best Sound Award (won) / The End of the Individual () * 2003 – A. N. Stankovič Award - Solitaire d’Or (won) / The End of the Individual () * 2003 – IFF Karlovy Vary - Best Student Film Collection Award (won) / The End of the Individual (), shared with V. Kadrnka and H. Papírníková * 2005 – Sazka Dance Award (won) / Silent Talk (), VerTeDance * 2006 – Czech Music Academy Award - Best Music Video of the Year (won) / "Známka punku" (The Sign of Punk) * 2007 – Óčko Music TV Award - Best Music Video of the Year (nominated) / "Chvátám" (Rush) * 2008 – Filter Mag Award - Best Music Video of the Year (won) / Days Will Never Be the Same * 2008 – Óčko Music TV Award - Best Music Video of the Year (nominated) / Days Will Never Be the Same * 2008 – Žebřík Award - Best Music Video of the Year (nominated) / Days Will Never Be the Same * 2009 – Filter Mag Award - Best Music Video of the Year (won) / "Meleme, meleme kávu" (Grinding the Coffee) * 2016 – UNERHÖRT Film Festival Hamburg - Best Film Prize (won) / ''Girl Power''

Work

Direction and screenwriting filmography

* 2002 – The End of Individual () / short * 2003 – Off Off / documentary TV series * 2003 – Operation In/Out (Operace In/Out) / documentary * 2006 – Break My Heart Please! / short dance film series * 2012 – Then And Now () / documentary * 2015 – Tribes: Hackers () / documentary * 2016 – Girl Power / documentary 008 TRIBES

Music videos

* 1998 – WWW / The Caramel Is Sugar That Will Never Recover () * 2005 – Padlock (Visací Zámek) / The Sign of Punk () * 2006 – Pio Squad / Rush () * 2006 – PSH / The Year of PSH () * 2008 – Sunshine / Days Will Never Be The Same * 2009 – Hugo Toxxx & Vladimir518 / Grinding the Coffee () * 2011 – Padlock () / 50

Edit

* 2002 – Elusive Butterfly () / documentary * 2008 – The Anatomy of Gag () / short * 2009 – Extraordinary Life Stories -

Josef Abrhám Josef Abrhám (14 December 1939 – 16 May 2022) was a Czech film and theatre actor. Biography He originally began studying acting at Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and later moved to Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts i ...

() / TV documentary * 2011 – I Am Fishead / documentary * 2013 – Hotelier / documentary * 2014 – Magical Dramatic Club () / TV documentary series

Theatre performances (cooperation)

* 2003 – Hypermarket / The National Theatre * 2004 – Eldorado / The National Theatre * 2004 – The Queen of Spades () / The State Opera * 2004 – Silent Talk () / VerTeDance * 2006 – Break My Heart Please! / Theatre XXL * 2012 – Czech House /

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

* 2013 –

War with the Newts ''War with the Newts'' (''Válka s Mloky'' in the original Czech), also translated as ''Salamander Wars'', is a 1936 satirical science fiction novel by Czech author Karel Čapek. It concerns the discovery in the Indian Ocean of a sea-dwelling rac ...

() / The State Opera * 2013 –

Krabat – The Sorcerer's Apprentice ''Krabat – The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' () is a 1978 Czechoslovak cutout animated dark fantasy film directed by Karel Zeman, based on the 1971 book '' Krabat'' by Otfried Preußler, and the Sorbian folk tale upon which the book is based. The n ...

() / The National Theatre * 2014 – The Lucie 2014 Megatour

Festivals and exhibitions

* 2002 –

Febiofest The Prague International Film Festival (), also known as Febiofest, was a film festivals in the Czech Republic. It presented a wide spectrum of contemporary and retrospective examples of high-quality film including alternative, film-school and a ...

, Prague, the Czech Republic (The End of Individual / ) * 2003 – Anthology Film Archive, New York City, USA (The End of Individual / ) * 2003 –

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (, KVIFF) is an annual film festival held in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival is one of the oldest in the world and has become Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern Eur ...

, the Czech Republic (The End of Individual / ) * 2003 – Dahlonega International Film Festival, Georgia, USA (The End of Individual / ) * 2008 –

Chelsea Art Museum The Chelsea Art Museum (CAM) was a contemporary art museum located at 556 West 22nd Street on the corner of Eleventh Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The museum focused on post-war European art. The museum was ...

/ Sonicself, New York City, USA (The End of Individual / ) * 2008 – Bolzano ShortFilm Festival, Italy (Rush / ) * 2008 –

Brooklyn Film Festival The Brooklyn Film Festival (BFF), prior to 2011 called the Brooklyn International Film Festival (BiFF) is an independent film festival held every June in New York City. Started by Marco Ursino, Susan Mackell, Abe Schrager, and Mario Pegoraro in ...

, New York City, USA (Days Will Never Be the Same) * 2008 – PechaKucha Night, Prague, the Czech Republic * 2010 – 56th

, Germany (Grinding the Coffee / ) * 2010 – DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague, the Czech Republic (Polys) * 2010 –

, Shanghai, China (Polys) * 2015 – AFO International Festival of Science Documentary Films, Olomouc, the Czech Republic (Tribes: Hackers / ) * Girl Power (2016): Red Gallery London, United Kingdom, Urban Art Fair Paris, France, Cinema L'Ecran Saint-Denis, France, American Cosmograph Toulouse, France, Expo Charleroi Tattoo’moi 1 Graffiti, Belgium, Urban Spree Berlin, Germany,

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation The Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation ( ), based in Wiesbaden, was founded in 1966 to preserve and curate a collection of the works of Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau as well as a collection of other German films totaling to about 6,000 produced b ...

Wiesbaden, Germany, Milla Club Munchen, Germany, IFZ Leipzig, Germany, Film Festival Essen, Germany, Platzprojekt Hannover, Germany, Culture centrum Kiel, Germany, UNERHÖRT Film Festival Hamburg, Germany, Frameout Film Festival Vienna, Austria, Kuns Festival Oslo, Norway, Helsinki International Film Festival, Finland, Stencibility Festival Tartu, Estonia, International Film Festival 86 Slavutych, Ukraine, Artmossphere Moscow, Russia, Artmossphere Saint Petersburg, Russia, Cultural Institution Krajn, Slovenia, Blart festival, Bosna and Hercegovina, Colombian Urban Art Film Festival Bogota, Colombia, De Cine MÁS Managua, Nicaragua, Redfern Community Centre Sydney, Australia & StayFly Sydney, Australia.Girl Power: Australian premiere
/ref>

Literature

* Martina Overstreet: ''In Graffiti We Trust''. Praha: Mladá fronta 2006, 230 pages

References

External links

*
Czech-Slovak Film Database

Jan Zajicek’s videos
on

Vimeo Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zajíček, Jan 1977 births Czech music video directors Film directors from Prague Living people Academy of Performing Arts in Prague alumni