Benedetta Argentieri is an independent journalist and documentary director currently based in Italy. Since 2014 she has been focusing on Iraq and Syria, covering the ongoing conflict and the feminist struggles with feature articles and feature-length documentaries. Her work has been published by several international media organizations, amongst others Reuters, The Sunday Times, Daily Beast, and Sunday Telegraph.
In 2019, she co-authored “Io non sono Islam” (I am not Islam), a graphic novel inspired by the story of Islam Mitat, a young Moroccan woman whose husband tricked her into the Islamic State. The book was published by the Italian Salani Nostalgia.
In 2018 she directed “I am the Revolution”, a feature length documentary about three women fighting for freedom and gender equality in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Rojava (North-East Syria). The film premiered at DOC NYC, the biggest documentary festival in the US, and was shown in dozens of other festivals around the world. It was also picked up by TV stations in Europe and it is distributed by Women Make Movies in America for both theatrical and educational purposes.
In 2016 she co-directed with Bruno Chiaravalloti and Claudio Jampaglia the documentary “Our War”, which tells the story of international fighters joining the ranks of YPG in Syria fighting against ISIS, which premiered at the 73 Venice Film Festival.
In 2013 she co-produced and co-directed “Capulcu-Voices of Gezi”, a documentary about the revolt that occurred in Gezi Park in Istanbul, Turkey, happening that same year. The film won the Amnesty International award.
Previously, she had long been a staff writer at Corriere della Sera, the leading Italian newspaper.
Argentieri is also a public speaker: in 2018 she was invited to give a talk about “women in war” at the Ted Talk X in Milan, and she often speaks in schools and universities about her experience as a conflict reporter and geopolitical situation in the Middle East.
In 2014, she obtained an MA in Journalism, with a concentration in politics, from Columbia University in New York. She also has a BA in Decorative Art from Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London.
