West Dover—Ever since its Standing Room Only premiere at the Williamsville Hall in January this heartwarming locally-produced documentary has been screening at community venues in the West River Valley from Brattleboro’s Latchis Theatre to Jamaica’s Town Hall to appreciative crowds. Now the 181-seat MHCA Dover Cinema, “your friendly theatre in the mountains,” will present this locally-made documentary on Sunday, 27 April 2025, at 4:30 p.m. Doors open at 3:45 p.m. Admission is by donation, which will be split equally between the non-profit MHCA DOVER Cinema and Arts and Brattleboro Community Television, the documentary’s sponsor. After the screening the video’s two stars, octogenarians Alan and Everett Bills, wry storytellers, will answer audience questions and tell a few tales.

The 45-minute video follows the Bills brothers and their co-owner niece, Debbie (Bills) Bauer, during the last days of their sawmill, founded in 1936 by their intrepid father, Melbourne Bills. The video was mostly filmed in the summer of 2023 when the family sold the mill and 433 adjacent acres of mountain forest. In the first part of the movie, Everett and Alan Bills recount the mill’s history and describe life growing up on Bills Hill, their family compound off Route 100 in rural Wardsboro, population 869. The second part depicts the demolition of the sawmill, the de-barker, and the planing shed, with a glimpse of Alan’s life a year after the mill’s demise. In the end, his buoyant spirit vanquishes all.

The charismatic brothers made their sawmill a community hub. “It was the kind of place where, if you brought coffee and donuts, they’d shut down the mill and sit down to talk,” said Newfane filmmaker Theresa Maggio. “Their benevolent personalities draw people to them.” Maggio, a former reporter for the Brattleboro Reformer, had interviewed family patriarch Melbourne Bills some thirty years before and knew of this family’s importance to the West River Valley.

“When I heard that his sons had sold the mill, I knew I had to tell the story,” Maggio said. “People love the Bills brothers and they fill all the venues to share the love en masse.” After the premiere a man in the audience stood up and led the packed house in singing Auld Lang Syne. “That’s what I love about these get-togethers. Quite a few people have seen the movie two or three times,” Maggio said.

After its first two local screenings, audience members wrote to Maggio.

Joan Elliott, of Wardsboro, wrote on Facebook, “We will never forget how Everett and Alan helped us after Irene when we lost our bridge. Ever grateful to these wonderful, generous men.”

Jan Robinson Hull, of Wardsboro, who grew up with the Bills brothers, wrote: “I know this story is dear to many, many people in the area. You got it!… It brought many viewers to tears…We were all very poor, but we didn’t know it, we had loving parents and when we got a gift…it was cherished. To me, you have given us the story of the Bills Mill – it is a gift to all of us.”

Laura Wallingford-Bacon, of Williamsville, wrote that the documentary was “so important to future generations just as Porter Thayer’s photographs are to our generation.”

Jill Dean of Wardsboro wrote: “My husband and I got the very last seats in the back row, and we were 30 minutes early… What a great movie!”