Donald M. Ephraim Film Festival: Futurespast

Description

Leo Melamed was the chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the world's largest futures trading floor. His son Jordan had a successful trading career, but left Chicago for Hollywood. After initial success, Melamed returned to his parents' home defeated. He proposes making a documentary about his famous father. We experience the high-stakes world of trading, with a practice known as "open outcry," where traders call out frenzied orders. Despite its machismo there is humanity in these face-to-face transactions that are quickly being replaced by a computer system created by Jordan's father. Simultaneously there are painful attempts at communication between father and son. Melamed is trying to find a way to reach his father, a Polish Jewish refugee. "A clever little film about different forms of communication and the crucial importance of face-to-face exchanges - whether they involve huge sums of money or the even weightier currencies that dictate personal emotion and family dysfunction." -Hollywood Reporter.