In recent years, while Colorado’s craft beer industry was busy hitting its stride and wading through a series of headline-making growing pains, the Centennial state’s distillers sat in the shadows—patiently waiting for their turn to step into the spotlight. When it takes at least three years to produce one batch of whiskey, you get pretty good at being patient. But for those hardworking and future-thinking whiskey-makers, and the local farming communities they source ingredients from, the wait to share their stories with the world is over, thanks to one Colorado-based filmmaker.
Last month, director Thomas Kolicko and his production company Traverse Image LLC, shared a sneak peak of The Whiskey Film—a documentary film about American whiskey, the people that make the whiskey, and the agricultural community that supplies them with ingredients to do so. The film’s teaser reel features Michael Myers from Distillery 291 in Colorado Springs, Colo., Lenny and Amy Eckstein from Deerhammer Distilling Company in Buena Visita, Colo., and the Cody family from Colorado Malting Company in Alamosa, Colo.
The film is currently in the early stages of filming and is Kolicko’s third feature-length documentary film. It follows the filmmaker’s second documentary, Crafting A Nation, a film about the craft beer industry which is currently being streamed on Netflix.
“The whiskey industry in the United States is at a very exciting time right now, as it’s following the same explosive growth that craft beer experienced a few years back,” explains Kolicko. “The Whiskey Film is more than a film about whiskey, it’s about the human spirit. It’s about strong opinions, a creative outlook, the intention of design, patience, and the stewardship of a unique craft. It’s about a refined expression of agriculture. It’s about history, education, and entrepreneurship. It’s about… well, whatever the hell whiskey means to you.”
Kolicko and his crew are currently crowdfunding to unlock new filming locations across the U.S. For more information on the film and fundraising for the film, visit: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-whiskey-film#/.
