''Floored'' is a 2009

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

about the people and business of the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

trading floors. The film focuses specifically on several Chicago

floor trader A floor trader is a member of a stock or commodities exchange who trades on the floor of that exchange for his or her own account. The floor trader must abide by trading rules similar to those of the exchange specialists who trade on behalf of ot ...

s who have been impacted by the

electronic trading In finance, an electronic trading platform also known as an online trading platform, is a computer software program that can be used to place orders for financial products over a network with a financial intermediary. Various financial products c ...

revolution and whose jobs have been threatened by the use of computers in the trading world. Directed by James Allen Smith, the film runs for 77 minutes. The film has become particularly relevant in light of the U.S. financial crisis of 2009; Greg Burns of the

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

has said of the film's director, "By dealing with hard times in the workplace, Smith taps into a vein running through millions of lives in this brutal

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

, as the nation’s

unemployment rate Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the refere ...

soars toward 10 percent" Critics have suggested a

meta-fictional Metafiction is a form of fiction which emphasises its own narrative structure in a way that continually reminds the audience that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is self-conscious about language, literary form, and story ...

subtext Subtext is any content of a creative work, which is not announced explicitly (by characters or author), but is implicit, or becomes something understood by the audience. Subtext has been used historically to imply controversial subjects without ...

to the documentary, linking the film's storyline about Chicago traders to the plight of

independent filmmaker An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, in ...

s in a time of the declining influence of

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

s and the ubiquitousness of free internet content. Ironically, the documentary itself was widely available on video sharing sites before its official "web premiere" on September 6, 2013.Szala, G.
"Trading places: From peak to FLOORED (a documentary)"

Notes

External links

*

New York Times. 2010-05-07
Trading places: From peak to FLOORED
Futures Magazine. 2013-08-13 American documentary films 2009 documentary films 2009 films Documentary films about the Great Recession Trading films Documentary films about computing Documentary films about business Documentary films about Chicago 2000s English-language films 2000s American films {{2000s-documentary-film-stub