Welcome to our Happy Hour Question & Answer series, where we ask questions to interesting people in the alcohol world.

This week’s spotlight is Filmland Spirits and founder Troy Bolotnick. Filmland Spirits is a team of entrepreneurs who are combining their enthusiasm for whiskey, passion for movies and dedication to storytelling to create a portfolio of award-winning small batch American Whiskeys. The Filmland team believes that every whiskey has a story and every story deserves a whiskey. The result is a wildly creative pairing of an original retro B-Movie concept — complete with monsters, robots and over-the-top plots — with a delicious and unique Bourbon — each of which has already won a Gold Medal. Even the bottles tell part of the story as they are custom designed to reflect an art deco style so reminiscent of the movie houses of old and feature movie posters as labels. 

Hops & Spirits: Before we talk whiskey, you’ve been a storyteller most of your life?
Troy Bolotnick: Yes. When I was very young, I loved the movies and dreamt of writing stories and screenplays. I started writing plays and short stories when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I studied creative writing and literature in college and I’ve written screenplays, poetry, plays, short stories and more.

HS: Where does your entrepreneurial spirit come from?
TB: My father was a small business owner and definitely taught me the value of hard work. He always put a strong emphasis on working for yourself and not being dependent on other people for your livelihood and success. In college, I worked in community theater — producing, directing, acting, etc. It was extremely low budget and no one was getting paid. I learned a ton about how to start from scratch and bring a complicated production to life. I still use methods and lessons from those days in business today.

HS: When/how did the whiskey bug get you?
TB: Around 10 years ago, I happened to be at several events within a few weeks that exposed me to bourbon; A friend’s wedding, a corporate dinner with a tasting table, a trip to New Orleans for a conference. I enjoyed it right away and became fascinated by it. My friend of 30 years and partner in Filmland, Charlie Flint also started getting into bourbon around the same time and so we began meeting every year in Kentucky to visit distilleries and taste. From there, it exploded from interest to hobby to passion.

HS: When did you decide to get into the whiskey business?
TB: I started talking about getting into the business in 2015. I developed various ideas but I was involved in another venture. After I sold that other company, I decided the timing was right. I started working on the ideas and plans for Filmland in September of 2020 and we launched in September of 2022.

HS: What’s that journey been like?
TB: It’s been incredible. I mean, like every adventure, it has its challenges and setbacks, but it has been incredibly fulfilling. One of the many reasons we chose Filmland as the concept was to give us a very big canvas for our creativity. So, it has been really creatively fun and satisfying to see all of our products go from idea to rough mockups to our final products — all of which turned out beautifully. We’ve received a ton of recognition and have won gold and double gold medals for our liquid as well as our design and packaging which has just been so personally and professionally rewarding for me and my team.

HS: How did y’all decide on Filmland Spirits as the name?
TB: A friend was helping me get my whiskey brand off the ground. Among other things, he is a podcast host and he started interviewing me about my hobbies and interests. I started talking about writing and the movies. He stopped me and pointed out that the passion with which I was talking about storytelling was the same passion I had for Bourbon and whiskey. We said we had to find a way to combine those passions. The name Filmland and many of our product ideas came almost immediately after that. Early on, we defined our mission as bringing people together through captivating stories and great tasting spirits. The name Filmland Spirits really embodies that goal.

HS: How are y’all different from other brands?
TB: I like to say our backstory is on the front. We build an entire universe around each of our products based on the original B-Movie concept that we create. Every element of our products is designed so that our fans and customers can immerse themselves into the characters and worlds while they enjoy an award-winning bourbon or rye. For us, the whiskey is the story and the story is the whiskey. The label not only has a bright, eye-catching poster for our original movie, but character portraits and bios, a synopsis of the movie and more. Our social @Filmlandspirits and Filmlandspirits.com extend the story further with movie posters, script pages and trailers.

HS: Can you tell us a little bit about your current releases?
TB: We currently have three products available: Moonlight Mayhem! A Saga of Werewolves and Bourbon is a 94 proof bourbon that won a double gold medal from San Francisco World Spirits Competition. It is also available in Cask Strength as Moonlight Mayhem! Extended Cut – also a gold medal winner. Our rye is called Ryes of the Robots: Serve the Drinks Save the World which has also won a gold medal and was named one of the best new ryes of the year at the end of 2022.

HS: What’s next for Filmland Spirits?
TB: We have more than five years of stories and products planned, but for now our missions is to get our products into the hands and mouths of as many people as possible and build a community of Filmlanders who love great whiskey and great stories. By the fall, we will be expanding our distribution to four more states and will continue to grow from there.

HS: Where can folks find a bottle/get more information?
TB: We are available in stores in California and Kentucky right now and are coming to Nevada, Washington, Arizona and Alaska very soon. All of our products can also be purchased online at FilmlandSpirits.com and we are currently shipping to nearly 40 states. For more information, everyone can follow @Filmlandspirits on Instagram and Facebook, join our email list and dive deeper into all of our products at FilmlandSpirits.com