The most radical—both stylistically and politically—director to emerge from the Czechoslovak New Wave, Věra Chytilová (1929–2014) is primarily known to audiences outside the Czech Republic for her famously banned, anarcho-feminist blitzkrieg Daisies. Far from a one-hit wonder, however, Chytilová left behind a rich body of rarely screened, genre-spanning works—avant-garde, comedy, horror, and beyond—all infused with her defiantly anti-patriarchal worldview and freewheeling visual style. Her films are open calls to rebellion from a fierce individualist who once said, “If there’s something you don’t like, don’t keep to the rules—break them.” A longtime professor at Prague’s legendary FAMU film school, her work is presented alongside a selection of films by a new generation of filmmakers mentored by Chytilová.
Apr 10—18