LAJFF - Futures Past

Futures Past captures the power struggle between filmmaker Jordan Melamed and his father, Leo Melamed, Holocaust survivor and kingpin of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Set against the last days of trading in the legendary Chicago pits, what begins as a document of the end of an era, becomes a deeply personal exploration by a son returning to “the kill or be killed” world he was raised in.

Commodity trader turned filmmaker Jordan Melamed returns to his former life as the Chicago trading pits are threatened with extinction. ‘Open Outcry,’ the 150-year-old tradition of traders shouting out their orders, is being silenced by computer trading. Dominating this world is Jordan’s father, Leo Melamed, the imperious Chairman Emeritus of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the man responsible for changing the way the world trades. As Jordan gives us a crash course in the secret code on the trading floor, upstairs in Leo’s office, a long-dormant battle between father and son erupts, echoing the shouting in the pits. Open Outcry is their only common language and Jordan is determined to close the gulf with his father before the pits are silenced forever. Nearly 10 years in the making, Futures Past deftly examines the importance of human contact, whether in families or “the pits.”

Q&A with Jordan Melamed and Leo Melamed