Ben Hayoun Stépanian Nelly

Ben Hayoun- Stépanian (she/they) is a filmmaker and artist, who works with leading scientists and engineers, to devise subversive events and experiences. An advocate for plurality, she documents and builds platforms that support freedom of thinking, the creation of organised communities and public events, expeditions and projects with socio-political impacts. She previously collaborated with Kid Cudi, The Avalanches, Beck, Sigur Ros, Massive Attack, Bobby Womack, Damon Albarn, Maywa Denki, The Prodigy, Bruce Sterling and more in a musical collaboration that took music into space. In 2012 she established the International Space Orchestra - the world first orchestra of NASA scientists. Their work flew aboard the International Space Station in 2013 and 2016. Since 2013, Nelly is the Vice Chair of the IAF (International Astronautical Federation) Technical Committee on the Cultural Utilization of Space (ITACCUS), a member of the IAF Space Education and Outreach Committee (SEOC), and a member of the IAA (International Academy of Astronautics) Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) permanent committee, and a founding member of the IAF Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Administrative (IDEA) committee in 2023. They are designer of experiences at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute where they founded the experiences department together with the 'Space Culture' and 'Decolonial Space' session at the International Astronautical Congress. In 2022, she was granted a Karman Fellowship and took part into a one-year programme designed to support 15 carefully selected global leaders to strengthen personal relations, meet with thought-leaders in technology, science, business, politics and the arts, and take personal commitments to further advance space-related agendas for the betterment of humanity. Ben Hayoun-Stépanian was the chief of Experiences at file transfer service WeTransfer for 10 years working with WeTransfer's president Damian Bradfield towards building a sustainable B Corp Business, Nelly also assisted in the business development and strategy in the USA. During Ben Hayoun-Stépanian's tenure at WeTransfer the company grew its client base from 10,000 users to 90 millions active users a month. An advocate for plurality and freedom of thinking across borders, she is the founder of the tuition-free university University of the Underground, which includes board members and activists like Prof. Noam Chomsky, Pussy Riot and Prof. Arjun Appadurai. This tuition-free educative and cultural program is supporting plurality of thinking, free and transnational teaching and unconventional practices in the basement of nightclubs since 2017. In 2022, following a nationwide competition, Nelly directed a new nationwide festival- Tour de moon- for youths touring all around the UK- celebrating youth countercultures and nightlife and working to redistribute wealth and public funds through commissioned projects with thousands of youths involved, which led to the creation of both digital and physical assets- this was the UK's most large creative grant and ambitious showcase of STEAM collaboration including free large-scale events, installations and globally accessible digital experiences. Ben Hayoun- stépanian is the author of five feature documentary investigating topics such as the origins of knowledge and totalitarian regimes but also the next phase of humanity in space, her films work to platform diasporic and queer ecofeminist visions: : THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE ORCHESTRA (2013), premiered at the International Film Festival in Rotterdam. Their documentary DISASTER PLAYGROUND (2015) premiered at SXSW. Their documentary I AM (NOT) A MONSTER (2019) premiered at the London Film Festival and was nominated for a Grierson Award, featuring Noam Chomsky and Pussy Riot, it seeks to find the origins of knowledge, it is currently on NETFLIX EMEA. Their latest documentary is DOPPELGÄNGERS³ (2024), which was selected at the SXSW in the Vision category and commissioned by the Sundance Institute, Sandbox film grant, and the BFI Doc Society feature fund.