Czech Center New York marked the 60th anniversary of Věra Chytilová’s anarchic Czech New Wave classic Daisies with an evening dedicated to the film’s enduring aesthetic, political, and feminist power. The program opened with a presentation and discussion featuring Barbora Bartunkova, Tanya Goldman, Maggie Hennefeld, Leana Hirschfeld-Kroen, Dijana Jelača, Meta Mazaj, Masha Shpolberg, and Aurore Spiers, whose contributions to a forthcoming dossier in JCMS: The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies offered fresh perspectives on the film’s links to early cinema, socialist modernity, feminist film culture, and contemporary pop culture. The evening also included the premiere of a short Daisies-inspired film by experimental filmmaker Kelly Gallagher. Following the discussion, audiences gathered for a screening of Chytilová’s radical 1966 masterpiece in the Czech Center Cinema, while the celebration continued on the Bohemian National Hall rooftop with refreshments, music, and a playful atmosphere inspired by the film’s subversive spirit. The event was organized in partnership with the Ester Krumbachova Archive 2022–2026.
Photographer: Bruce C.T. Bybee
