On the Fourth (2020)

Director Brock DeShane's ON THE FOURTH chronicles the annual Independence Day celebration in his hometown of Roxton, Texas. Filmed over the summers of 1991-1993 on a budget of $700, the documentary is punctuated by interviews with diverse locals. Among them are the oldest living graduate of the public high school (closed since the film was made), a concerned young farmer, and a pair of black townswomen with mixed feelings about the celebration. Through these conversations and others, DeShane - then a recent film school graduate - reveals the hopes, joys, and anxieties of rural America in the last decade of the twentieth century.