In my (admittedly very limited) experience, there are two kinds of moonshine: the hellish and the treacherous. The hellish, of course, is immediately recognizable by taste, like drinking (and usually eventually vomiting) liquid fire. In fact, I’d wager to say that, no matter the route, moonshine tends to exit the body with a trademark burn. The second kind, the treacherous, is sneaky. It’s deceptively smooth, sometimes even delicious, and you can drink way too much of it before you realize you’re in trouble.

Regardless of my own terrible experiences with moonshine, its production is fascinating, and its history largely misunderstood. This is the Last Dam Run of Likker I’ll Ever Make, later recut and renamed The Last One, captures the twilight of moonshine culture. Starring the infamous Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton, the documentary follows Sutton through the entire process, and records his reflections on a life of moonshining.

In 2009, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives raided Sutton, and he was sentenced to eighteen months in federal prison for the operation of an illegal still and possession of a firearm as a felon. The the raid was actually led by Jim Cavanaugh, or “Waco Jim,” the negotiator during the siege on David Koresh and the Branch Davidians cult (yes, that guy is still doing raids). Sutton was 62 years old at the time, and had just been diagnosed with cancer. Knowing he may have had very little time left, he begged the judge to allow him to serve what may have been his final days on house arrest. In the infinite wisdom of our punitive judicial system, the judge refused an old moonshiner the right to die of cancer in his own home, and as a result, Sutton committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.

To its credit, the documentary isn’t narrated. Neither celebrating nor condemning Sutton, it simply allows him to speak, sometimes with insight, sometimes in ignorance, but always to charming effect. He loves his cats, his “old lady,” his Model A Ford, and yes, his moonshining. Sutton self-published an autobiographical guide to moonshine in 1999, and after that he made a home video of the process, which he self-released on VHS. Truly committed to producing quality liquor and recording the specifics of the trade for future generations, the man had a sense of posterity, and of purpose.