AllMovie

In 2005, director and screenwriter Johanna Lee was between projects and at the urging of a friend, she took a job at the New York Board of Trade. Lee suddenly had a ringside seat for one of the most dramatic and frenetic scenes in the global economic system, as each day handfuls of men and women shouted orders at one another on the trading floor, hoping to corner a market while it stays hot and move their shares before they lose value. Fascinated by the ferocity of the environment and the unusual characters who work in it, Lee began making a film about the world of commodities trading, where Ivy League graduates and regular guys with guts and a hunch work side by side in the most competitive environment on Earth. In The Pit, Lee presents an insider's look at the New York Board of Trade and its people, as well as chronicling the business in a period of transition, as electronic trading makes the old style of trading obsolete. The Pit was an official selection at the 2010 Cinequest Film Festival.