Passer began his film career as a screenwriter on Miloš Forman’s films: Konkurs (1963), Kdyby ty muziky nebyly (1963), A Blonde in Love (Lásky jedné plavovlásky, 1965), The Fireman's Ball (Horí, má panenko, 1967). He made his directing debut with the short film Fádni odpoledne (1964), after which he made the feature film Intimate Lighting (Intimni osvetleni, 1965), which was the last film he made in his home country. After the Prague Spring in 1968, he emigrated to the West and finally ended up in the USA. There he continued his film career and made mostly marginal films such as Born to Win (1971), Cutter's Way (1981), Creator (1985), The Wishing Tree (1999) and several TV films.