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We are glad to announce the participation of Argentinean director Teresa Mular as Guest of Honour at the XIII Florence Biennale (23-31 October 2021, Fortezza da Basso, Florence, Italy), where she will present the Italian première of her documentary Can’t Stop the Sun from Shining.

Teresa Mular, born and raised in Argentina, began working as a director in 2009, after having dedicated the first part of her life to a medical career. Her love for the art of cinema – for silent cinema, in particular – and for people’s stories, however, has much deeper roots. The need to tell a story through the camera is what gave rise to her works, immediately appreciated by critics. An example of this is Flying on the Wings of Time (2011), which was shown on several occasions – including in Florence during the XXIV Women Film Festival – and which won the Silver Award on the occasion of the Oregon International Film Festival (USA 2014). With the documentary The Muse and the Mountain (2013), Teresa Mular was then awarded numerous prizes, including “best director in a short documentary” at the Milan International Film Festival (2015) and “best foreign language short documentary” during the Berlin International Filmmaker (2016). Another particularly successful example in Teresa Mular’s career is Now Boarding (2015), which won, among others, best screenplay (Madrid International Filmmaker Festival 2016) and best comedy (Milano Film Festival 2016, Fusion Film Festival of Valencia and Brussels, 2019). With the documentary Four Journeys (2016), the director has won numerous other awards, including the Platinum Award at the “Short International Movie Awards” (2016) and the Top Winner Award at the “Cinema Grand Prix ​​” of Bali (2017).

Can’t stop the sun from shining (2019) it’s a touching story of the life of four women between the ages of 94 and 105, whose narrative evolves through the sensitive gaze of Teresa Mular. The film boasts numerous nominations in international film festivals and won the award for “best editing in a documentary” at the Fusion Film Festival UK (February 2020). It will be screened on the occasion of the XIII Florence Biennale, which will be held from 23 to 31 October 2021 at Fortezza da Basso.

The director explained that the message of her documentary is aimed at fighting against a limiting vision of old age; Teresa Mular affirms that discrimination against elderly people is a full-fledged discrimination, which should be opposed like all the others. Age is really just a number, just a biological question: you can still make a great contribution to society and live a full life until the last day.

The documentary is also an interesting opportunity to reflect on the theme of this edition of the Florence Biennale, to face a not very investigated aspect of femininity. The four short stories that follow one another in the medium-length film, enriched with vintage photos and short videos, are four sections of the life of women who are great examples of tenacity, determination and positivity. A deep moment of reflection on the female universe and its strengths that persist – and indeed intensify – over time.

Testo di Giulia Di Giacomo

© Florence Biennale 2021