Taglines: We’re all driven, until we are pushed over the Line.
In this modern epic, Kim Nguyen exposes the ruthless edge of our increasingly digital world. Cousins from New York, Vincent (Eisenberg) and Anton (Skarsgård) are players in the high-stakes game of High Frequency Trading, where winning is measured in milliseconds.
Their dream? To build a fiber-optic cable straight between Kansas and New Jersey, making them millions. But nothing is straightforward for this flawed pair. Anton is the brains, Vincent is the hustler, and together they push each other and everyone around them to breaking point on their quixotic adventure.
Constantly breathing down their necks is their old boss Eva Torres (Hayek) a powerful, intoxicating and manipulative trader who will stop at nothing to come between them and beat them at their own game. No matter what the cost, Vincent and Anton are determined to cut through America, only to find redemption at the end of their line, not through money, but through family and reconnecting to the land.
The Hummingbird Project is a 2018 Canadian-Belgian drama thriller film about high-frequency trading and ultra-low latency direct market access, written and directed by Kim Nguyen produced by Pierre Even at Item 7. It stars Jesse Eisenberg, Alexander Skarsgård, Salma Hayek, and Michael Mando. It had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2018. It was released in the United States on March 15, 2019, by The Orchard and was released on March 22, 2019 in Canada by Elevation Pictures.
About the Story
The film opens as stockbroker Vincent Zaleski pitches Bryan Taylor on investing in a fiberoptic cable from Kansas electronic exchange to the New York Stock Exchange in order to front run orders in a new high-frequency trading (HFT) operation. Taylor buys into the idea. Meanwhile, Vincent and his cousin Anton Zaleski are still employed by Eva Torres, where Anton programs trading software. Eva is also working on several ideas for HFT. Soon enough, Anton and Vincent quit, making Eva furious. She insists that any code Anton created for her firm belongs to it, and even the thoughts in his head might be proprietary.
Vincent has hired Mark Vega to oversee the building of the fiberoptic cable tunnel. Vincent occasionally helps Mark purchase or lease the rights to land in order to make the cable as straight as possible. Any deviation in the shape of the tunnel will create delays in the trade. Anton is hard at work trying to shave 1 millisecond off the time it takes to front-run orders to NYC. Currently, his software will do it in 17 milliseconds, which is not fast enough to be competitive. It needs to be at least 16 milliseconds to be a viable enterprise for Taylor’s firm.
Eva finds an NYU student who has written a paper about microwave pulses to effect HFT. She hires him, and starts the process of building a series of towers to make trades with microwaves. As Vincent struggles with everything from acquiring land, being diagnosed with cancer, and broken drill bits, Eva manages to finish her microwave towers first, and begins front-running the market.
The Hummingbird Project (2019)
Directed by: Kim Nguyen
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Alexander Skarsgård, Michael Mando, Salma Hayek, Sarah Goldberg, Anna Maguire, Frank Schorpion, Johan Heldenbergh, Kwasi Songui, Aiysha Issa
Screenplay by: Kim Nguyen
Production Design by: Emmanuel Frechette
Cinematography by: Nicolas Bolduc
Film Editing by: Nicolas Chaudeurge, Arthur Tarnowski
Costume Design by: Valérie Levesque
Set Decoration by: Geoffroy Gosselin, Andy Loew
Art Direction by: Marie-Soleil Dénommé, Michelle Lannon
Music by: Yves Gourmeur
MPAA Rating: R for language throughout.
Distributed by: The Orchard
Release Date: March 15, 2019
Visits: 42
