The BIFF Heats Up with Cold Wallet
THE RIVETING THRILLER , FILMED IN LENOX , WILL BE SCREENED AT THIS YEAR ’ S FILM FESTIVAL
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“ It ’ s a really good story ,” says
Elizabeth Aspenlieder , unit production manager of the film Cold Wallet , a suspenseful film shot in Lenox in which amateur online social commentators ( Redditors ) played by Raul Castillo , Melonie Diaz , and Tony Cavalero , get scammed in a cryptocurrency scheme , leading them to kidnap the financial kingpin behind the scheme . It premiered to rave reviews at South by Southwest in Austin , Texas , and will be screened at the Berkshire International Film Festival ( BIFF ) in Great Barrington on Friday , May 31 .
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Festival and in theaters this summer .
The fact that both women have strong connections to the Berkshires made it easy for Weissner , also VP of sales & distribution at Vanishing Angle production company in Altadena , California , to pitch the Berkshires to the production team .
The film ’ s plot can ’ t help but evoke the real-life story of local entrepreneur Ryan Salame , former chief executive of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency trading platform . He forfeited $ 1.5 billion and his properties in Lenox ( four restaurants and two commercial properties ) and made restitution of $ 5.6 million to FTX debtors after
in the characters from the WallStreetBets and Reddit message boards already , so I knew this was right for me . We started developing the idea at Test Pilot and commissioned the most underrated screenwriter in the game , John Hibey , to pen the script . When John and I jam on ideas , fun things always happen . Cold Wallet is that latest fun thing .”
“ It ' s absolutely amazing that this film came along in the time of Ryan Salame ,” says BIFF Founder and Artistic Director Kelley Vickery . “ I was intrigued by the subject matter and drawn to the cast and so happy that it was a good film , because you
OLIVER MILLAR
Tony Cavalero , left , and Raul Castillo play characters in Cold Wallet who get scammed in a cryptocurrency scheme . Inset , Lenox ’ s own Elizabeth Aspenlieder , is the film ’ s unit production manager . Two other feature films that Aspenlieder shot here in the Berkshires just got major distribution . The Secret Art of Human Flight will be in movie theaters across the country this summer , and Skelly , starring Brian Cox , will be released on major pay per view platforms like Amazon , Vudu , ITunes , Google play etc . in May .
IZABETH SCOTT BARROW
Aspenlieder , who lives in Lenox , has been a company artist and administrator at Shakespeare & Company for more than 25 years . She and Deborah Sims , Cold Wallet ’ s line producer who also lives in the Berkshires , were brought into the film by lead producer Ben Weissner , who worked with them on other films shot in the Berkshires , including Stroke of Luck ( 2019 ) and The Secret Art of Human Flight ( 2021 ), the latter screened at the Tribeca Film pleading guilty of criminal charges .
“ It was a total coincidence ,” says Aspenlieder . Director Cutter Hodiern and writer John Hibey had been writing and developing the film at least a year before the news of Salame broke .
“ Test Pilot studios wanted me to make a thriller about the doxing of a public villain ,” recounts Hodiern . “ My friend Justin Staple gave me the idea to make it a crypto heist thriller . I was deeply interested never know . All the elements have to come together . Maybe you don ’ t like the film , or it ' s not edited properly , or it doesn ’ t hold together . We very much support independent film and filmmakers in the Berkshires , but we don ’ t want to throw something in there that doesn ’ t work .”
Right off the bat , Aspenlieder found the perfect location : her neighbor ’ s home , Ethelwynde Estate on Yokun Road in Lenox . Built in 1875 for the U . S . ambas-
102 // BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE Holiday May / June 2023 2024