Jan “Yach” Paszkiewicz was born on 4th September 1958, in Bydgoszcz, where he lived with his parents at Aleja Ossolińskich. He is a graduate of Graphic Design at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.
Jan Paszkiewicz is a director and one of the creators of the Yach Film Festival, which is the only Polish festival dedicated to video clips. His wife, Magdalena Kunicka-Paszkiewicz, was one of the forces behind the origin of the festival. The first edition of the festival took place in Bydgoszcz, in 1989, and two years later, in 1991, the event was moved to Gdańsk. Today, the festival is held in Łódź. The best Polish video clip is selected in the main competition and the festival also gives awards for directing, editing, and cinematography.
Yach Paszkiewicz has made more than 400 video clips. He started his career in the field as early as in 1990 and his first ever video clip under his name was made for jazz band Oczi Cziorne, using a 8mm analogue camera. Yach Paszkiewicz is one of the first professional authors of music videos. He used to be a member of Akademia Fonograficzna ZPAV.
During his career, he worked with such big names of the music industry as: Kult, Kazik Staszewski, De Mono, Hey, Big Cyc, Budka Suflera, Big Day, Bielizna, Formacja Nieżywych Schabuff, Golden Life, Czarno-Czarni, Majka Jeżowska, Wojciech Waglewski, and Maciej Maleńczuk.
As a film director, Yach Paszkiewicz is known for his documentaries. He debuted with the short film Fantom Hermeticum, in 1996. Three years later, he made a sophomore short film under the title Obsesja (1999), in which he showed a band playing the songs composed by The Beatles. In cooperation with Jurek Owsiak, he made his next documentary Przystanek Woodstock – Najgłośniejszy Film Polski (2003). It was a two-hour long documentary, in which he recorded a live music festival held in 2002 and the people who came to be part of it.
The film director died on 13th December 2017, in Sopot.
Selected Filmography
Selected Awards
Yach Film – Grand Prix Award (Kult – “45-89”), Fryderyk Award – nomination in the Videoclip of the Year category (Big Cyc – “Kumple Janosika”), Fryderyk Award – nomination in the Videoclip of the Year category (Maciej Maleńczuk, Wojciech Waglewski – “Koledzy”), The President of Gdańsk Award in the category of Culture; DOKI Independent Music Award – Stary Palnik (Old Burner) Award for lifetime achievement