Stronger for Life (2021)

Ilaria Montagnani arrived in the United States from Florence, Italy at nineteen.She loves New York City and its potential to be anything you want to be if you work hard and have vision. During the next 20 years, Ilaria overcomes many obstacles as a pioneering woman entrepreneur developing weight-training and fitness workouts based on martial arts. She is one of the first women to bring strength training and martial arts to gyms in the U.S. In 2016, Ilaria, then an internationally recognized fitness expert at the peak of her career, was diagnosed with breast cancer. For an athlete of her magnitude, it was devastating. Shortly after her struggle, Ilaria learns of her father's diagnosis of terminal cancer. Stronger for Life documents Ilaria's fight against cancer and how she embodied her own philosophy: Exercise makes you stronger for life, to overcome the heartache and challenges she encounters. This documentary follows Ilaria every step of the way for three years from diagnosis and surgery to treatment and recovery. We see her in the hospital before her surgery and post-surgery as she makes difficult decisions regarding treatment. Our cameras capture her on film in the gym as she slowly struggles to regain her original level of strength despite being told by her physicians that she would never be able to physically perform her signature classes as before. Not long after her own battle with breast cancer, Ilaria receives wrenching news of her father's diagnosis of terminal lung cancer and returns to Florence several times for her last visits with him. The film features interviews and intimate family scenes, Ilaria's mother's stay in New York to help and support her, the surgeon who operated on her and a few of the many students who have been inspired by Ilaria's training and philosophy to confront challenges of their own. In 2017, Ilaria was honored with the first Lifetime Achievement Award ever given to an Equinox instructor, and in 2019 in an Equinox survey, Ilaria was acknowledged as the fitness instructor who had the greatest class attendance worldwide in the more than 100 gyms owned by Equinox. Adapting to the global crisis of the pandemic, Ilaria continues to teach and has developed a widely followed virtual presence, successfully converting her bricks and mortar classes into a digital form. She continues to follow her passion and spread her philosophy world-wide that exercise makes you stronger for life. In these uncertain times, exercise and fitness is more important than ever to support the immune system and combat the effects, both physical and psychological, of the pandemic.