Futures Past

After leaving 12 years prior to become a filmmaker (much to his father’s dismay), Jordan Melamed returns to the most violent of all financial arenas, the Chicago trading pits. He arrives just as the world built by his father, legendary trader Leo Melamed, is threatened with extinction by computer trading. As we are drawn into the high energy world of trading, we can admire Leo’s achievements while recognizing the toll his career has taken on his family. And we can admire Jordan’s independence while wishing that he was better at communicating with everyone around him. The film provides a unique perspective on the 2008 financial crash and its implications for the financial future. Set against the backdrop of a world rocked by cataclysmic events, Futures Past is both a study of a vanishing way of life and a deeply personal exploration of a tension filled father/son relationship.

“Compellingly combines family-strife autobiography with an elegy to a fast-changing corner of the financial world.” Hollywood Reporter

Interview with the Director, Jordan Melamed Chicago Business