Gaming Wall Street | |
---|---|
Genre | |
Directed by | Tobias Deml |
Starring |
|
Narrated by | Kieran Culkin |
Composers |
|
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 2 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers |
|
Producers |
|
Cinematography |
|
Editors |
|
Production companies |
|
Original release | |
Network | HBO Max |
Release | March 3, 2022 |
Gaming Wall St is a documentary television miniseries directed by Tobias Deml and narrated by Kieran Culkin. [1] [2] The two-episode series was released on March 3, 2022 on HBO Max. It explores the causes that lead to the 2021 GameStop short squeeze, and the dark underbelly of Wall Street that the phenomenon unearthed: payment for order flow, creative accounting, abuses of the short selling mechanism like naked short selling, corporate overvoting and failures to deliver (FTDs). [3]
The series was initiated by Prodigium Pictures, a production company owned by director Tobias Deml, in late 2020. [4] In its earliest form, Deml and producer Tessa Byford conceived of a documentary that would follow the rowdy online community Wall Street Bets. Once the GameStop phenomenon—popularized by that community—became a #1 global headline however, the focus shifted more towards the tug-of-war around meme stocks, and the financial markets phenomena underpinning this highly unusual event. Filming began on February 1, 2021, in Nevada. Due to multiple documentaries being announced on the subject, [5] the team chose to stay completely stealth and evaded any publicity. Prodigium teamed up with Biltmore Films (who had produced Betting on Zero a few years earlier); principals Burke Koonce and John Fichthorn were instrumental in elevating the documentary from a human interest piece with wild online culture wars to an investigative analysis of the darker corners of the financial system that the movement around GameStop exposed. [6]
The companies won the support of Biltmore's prior distributor, Gunpowder and Sky, for the project. The series was then pitched to HBO Max, and the streamer green-lit a two episode structure in the fall of 2021. The show was edited in secrecy on a highly compressed timeline of only 3.5 months with a team of 6 editors working in parallel, and a globally distributed animation team readying both narrative and schematic visualizations. [7] Deml and Byford concluded filming during post-production in early January 2022.
Gaming Wall St was announced with a trailer on February 26 [8] and released on March 3, 2022. [9]
Director Tobias Deml, having worked extensively in the space of Social Impact Entertainment [10] and intending to spread financial literacy [7] has stated that during the course of production, he "saw a great need for access to education about investing. We have the opportunity to right a decades-old wrong created by powerful firms that have been gaming the system to the detriment of society." [11] and "I hope that viewers will feel empowered to see themselves as investors and be part of a much-needed reform." [12]
No. | Title | Directed by | Original release date |
---|---|---|---|
1 | "Risky Bets" | Tobias Deml | March 3, 2022 |
2 | "Lifting the Veil" | Tobias Deml | March 3, 2022 |
ShowBiz Cheat Sheet has called the series a "Must-See" [2] while TV Guide criticized that the series "doesn't go deep enough on the culture or the alleged crimes". [13] Decider gave it a "Stream it!" recommendation, explaining "If you loved the mix of harsh language and financial market minutiae that defined The Big Short , then from its narrative to its visuals, you'll dig on Gaming Wall Street's whole entire groove." [14]
In the stock market, a short squeeze is a rapid increase in the price of a stock owing primarily to an excess of short selling of a stock rather than underlying fundamentals. A short squeeze occurs when demand has increased relative to supply because short sellers have to buy stock to cover their short positions.
Doug Pray is an American documentary film director, producer, editor, and cinematographer who often explores unique subcultures in his films.
Max Deml is a German-Austrian writer for environmental and financial magazines, a publisher and an entrepreneur.
Aaron Saidman is an American creator-developer, documentary filmmaker and television producer known for creating or serving as an executive producer on a number of non-fiction television series and documentary feature films, including Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, Curse of Von Dutch,Mind Field,Declassified: Untold Stories of American Spies, The Pitch,The Seven Five,Free Meek and Night Stalker: The Hunt For a Serial Killer. Saidman is the President and co-founder of The Intellectual Property Corporation, which he created in 2016 with longtime producing partner Eli Holzman.
McMillions is a documentary miniseries about the McDonald's Monopoly promotion scam that occurred between 1989 and 2001. Directed by James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte, the series details how the scam was perpetrated by Jerry Jacobson, the head of security for the agency that ran the promotion, and how he recruited a wide range of accomplices. The series premiered in the US on February 3, 2020, on HBO, and all episodes were made available in the UK on May 27, 2020, on Sky Documentaries. McMillions was nominated for five Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.
Hyperobject Industries is an American film and television production company founded by director, producer, screenwriter, and comedian Adam McKay in October 2019.
r/wallstreetbets, also known as WallStreetBets or WSB, is a subreddit where participants discuss stock and option trading. It has become notable for its colorful jargon, aggressive trading strategies, stories of extreme gains and losses acquired in the stock market, and for playing a major role in the GameStop short squeeze that caused significant losses for a number of US hedge funds and short sellers for a duration of time in early 2021.
DreamCrew Entertainment is a multi-disciplinary media company co-founded by Drake and Adel "Future" Nur in 2017, based in the US and works globally. The company functions as both a management company and entertainment group, housing a production company and content studio, known for the HBO television series Euphoria and the Netflix series Top Boy.
Wahl Street is an American television series created by Mark Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, and Archie Gips that premiered on HBO Max on April 15, 2021. It follows the actor Mark Wahlberg's businesses and investments as well as provides a glimpse into the characters who make up Wahlberg's real-life Entourage. The series was renewed for a second season in August 2021, which premiered in October 2022.
John Michael Wilson is an American documentary filmmaker. He is the creator and director of How To with John Wilson, a comedy-docuseries on HBO.
Keith Patrick Gill is an American financial marketer and educator and individual investor known for his posts on the subreddits r/wallstreetbets and r/SuperStonk. His analyses of GameStop stock and details of his resulting investment gains—posted on Reddit under the username DeepFuckingValue (DFV) and on YouTube and Twitter as Roaring Kitty, were cited as a driving factor in the GameStop short squeeze of January 2021, and as a spark for the subsequent trading frenzy in retail stocks. The rising stock value allowed Gill to turn an initial US$53,000 investment into $50 million by January 2021. Between 2021–2024, Gill kept a low profile but continued to increase his GameStop ownership. As of June 2024, Gill owns 9 million shares of GameStop valued at approximately $250 million, making him one of the company’s top five largest shareholders.
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street is a 2021 American documentary film directed by Marilyn Agrelo. Based on the non-fiction book Street Gang by Michael Davis, the film chronicles the development and airing of the children's television program Sesame Street, featuring interviews with series creators Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, as well as writers, actors, and artists involved in its creation.
In January 2021, a short squeeze of the stock of the American video game retailer GameStop and other securities took place, causing major financial consequences for certain hedge funds and large losses for short sellers. Approximately 140 percent of GameStop's public float had been sold short, and the rush to buy shares to cover those positions as the price rose caused it to rise even further. The short squeeze was initially and primarily triggered by users of the subreddit r/wallstreetbets, an Internet forum on the social news website Reddit, although a number of hedge funds also participated. At its height, on January 28, the short squeeze caused the retailer's stock price to reach a pre-market value of over US$500 per share, nearly 30 times the $17.25 valuation at the beginning of the month. The price of many other heavily shorted securities and cryptocurrencies also increased.
A meme stock is a stock that gains popularity among retail investors through social media. The popularity of meme stocks is generally based on internet memes shared among traders, on platforms such as Reddit's r/wallstreetbets. Investors in such stocks are often young and inexperienced investors. As a result of their popularity, meme stocks often trade at prices that are above their estimated value – as based on fundamental analysis – and are known for being extremely speculative and volatile.
The Way Down is an American documentary television miniseries directed and produced by Marina Zenovich. It follows Gwen Shamblin Lara, the founder of a diet program Weigh Down Workshop, and Remnant Fellowship, a new Christian group led by Shamblin Lara and located in Brentwood, Tennessee. It consists of 5 episodes and premiered with the first three on HBO Max on September 30, 2021, with the last two premiering on April 28, 2022.
Story Syndicate is an American film production and television production company founded in 2019 by Liz Garbus and Dan Cogan. The company primarily features documentary films and television series.
Four Hours at the Capitol is an HBO original documentary film produced in association with the BBC and directed by Jamie Roberts. It was released on October 20, 2021. The film chronicles the 2021 United States Capitol attack and focuses on the hours of 1-5 p.m. through an assortment of footage from that day, some previously unseen, in addition to testimonies from some rioters, law enforcement officers, Members of Congress and staffers who were inside the Capitol Complex.
The Last Movie Stars is an American documentary television miniseries created by Emily Wachtel and directed by Ethan Hawke. All six episodes of the series were released on HBO Max on July 21, 2022. After discovering transcripts of interviews conducted at Paul Newman's request for an abandoned memoir project, a daughter of Newman and Joanne Woodward asked Hawke to tell their story, personally and as artists. Hawke assembled actors to read pieces of the interviews, conducted and edited by writer Stewart Stern, including interviews with Newman and Woodward. The marriage spanned 50 years and was often cited as one of the great Hollywood successful marriages and love stories.
This Place Rules is a 2022 American documentary film directed by Andrew Callaghan in his feature directorial debut. The film premiered on HBO on December 30, 2022, and was released on HBO Max the following day.