Jan Schmidt-Garre, born on June 18, 1962 in Munich, studied philosophy at the Jesuit University of Philosophy in Munich (1982-1986). During this period, in 1984, he began to study at the Munich Film Academy (HFF). As a film student he worked as assistant director at several renowned theatre productions, such as the Salzburger Festspiele and the Bayreuther Festspiele and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. Furthermore he took extensive classes in conducting and phenomenology of music in Munich, Mainz, and Paris.

After his final degree at the HFF in 1988 he founded the production company Pars Media and produced as well as directed documentary portraits about artists (e.g. Olafur Eliasson and Andreas Gursky) as well as numerous documentaries and fictional films about music and art. His documentary "Celibidache" (1992), about his former teacher, the conductor Sergiu Celibidache, was nominated for a German Film Award and won several other awards, among them a Silver Medal at the Chicago International Film Festival.

In 2012 he presented "Der atmende Gott" ("The Breathing God") a feature documentary film about the history of Yoga.
Besides his work as a filmmaker and producer, Schmidt-Garre teaches directing and producing at several film schools and theatre academies.