Already infamous in the Appalachian highlands where he lived and brewed his potent, high-proof bootleg whiskey, Popcorn Sutton gained national fame and cult hero status after the release of a local documentary chronicling his artful distillery process.
"The Last One," an Emmy award-winning film from N.C. State University filmmaker Neal Hutcheson, follows Sutton as he carefully plans and prepares one last batch of moonshine in the North Carolina mountains.
That film is being featured tonight at the Chatham Arts Council's Sustainable Cinema film series, which features films with a connection to North Carolina.
Also playing tonight is a short film on Johnston County moonshiner Percy Flowers.
As with many cult heroes, Sutton's story doesn't have a happy ending. After making that "one last batch" depicted in the film, Sutton decided he wanted one more. The next, larger batch of illegal alcohol attracted the attention of revenuers, who raided Sutton's Tennessee home and arrested him.
Sutton was sentenced to 18 months in prison by a federal judge in Tennessee in January 2009, and committed suicide at his home in Tennessee that March, the week before he was to begin serving his sentence.
"The Last One," which beautifully captures the spirit of the rascally Sutton and the dying tradition of making moonshine, received an Emmy in the "cultural documentary" category that June.
Sutton's cinematic companion tonight will be Flowers, whose life is depicted in the short film "Percy's Run." Flowers was declared "King of the Moonshiners" by The Saturday Evening Post in 1958. That film is from Durham-based photographer and filmmaker D.L. Anderson.
The night of moonshine movies wouldn't be complete without moonshine music, which will be provided by Tommy Edwards and Stan Brown of The Bluegrass Experience.
