Petra Epperlein presented this movie at the International Film Festival Chicago in 2016. It is a documentary about the past of her own father who was rumored to have been an informant for the Stasi, the infamous secret service of the former East German Republic. The movie also serves as a history piece and captures the oppressive world of a Big Brother state, a government that went to extremes to collect all kinds of data about its citizens and at the same time controlled the information it fed ...

Jordan Melamed, who is the son of Leo Melamed premiered his documentary Futures Past at the Chicago Film Festival. He worked on this documentary for ten years. It is partly about how his father fundamentally changed the way options and futures are traded by moving the pits a la criee to the computer. The other part is about the interesting and at times testy relationship between father and son. It is a fascinating portrait of the two and of an important piece of history in the financial world. ...

Once again I had the pleasure of attending the Red Carpet event at the 52nd Chicago International Film Festival this month. There were several stars in attendance. Aside from the local celebrities like Chaz Ebert and Michael Kutza there were some big names: French director Claude Lelouch, French actress Valerie Perrin, actor Chin Han from Singapore, actor Michael Rooker, director John McNaughton and last but not least Geraldine Chaplin.     ...