Next Stage Arts invites the public to a special screening of Bills Lumber, a deeply moving 45-minute documentary that captures the final chapter of an iconic Vermont family business. The screening takes place at 4:00 PM on Saturday, May 17, 2025.
Bills Lumber tells the story of the Bills family’s 86-year-old sawmill in Wardsboro, Vermont, through the eyes of octogenarian brothers Alan and Everett Bills and their niece, Debbie Bills Bauer. Following the sale of the mill and its 433 acres of forest, the documentary chronicles the dismantling of the mill their father, Melbourne Bills, founded in 1936.
Filmmaker Theresa Maggio, who first met Melbourne and Mabel Bills as a reporter for the Brattleboro Reformer in the early 1990s, returned decades later to capture the mill’s final days. Filmed during the summer and fall of 2023, the documentary is both a poignant farewell and a tribute to resilience, family, and a vanishing way of life.
“These are amazingly resilient people,” said Maggio. “I feel lucky to know them.”
Audiences have responded with overwhelming enthusiasm. A February screening at the Latchis Theatre drew a standing-room-only crowd of 250. Jon Potter, Executive Director of Latchis Arts, called it “a complete honor” to host the event. “We’re still buzzing about it,” he later wrote. “Alan’s trumpet performance of ‘As Time Goes By’ brought tears to my eyes.”
The screening at Next Stage will be followed by a Q&A session with Alan and Everett Bills, who have captivated audiences with their humor, warmth, and stories of life on “Bills Hill.” Alan, a member of the original Bills Band, is known to bring his trumpet—and his charm.
Praise for Bills Lumber has poured in from across the West River Valley:
“We were all very poor, but we didn’t know it… To me, you have given us the story of the Bills Mill – it is a gift to all of us.”
— Jan Robinson Hull, Wardsboro
“What a great movie! My husband and I got the very last seats in the back row—and we were 30 minutes early.”
— Jill Dean, Wardsboro
“So important to future generations, just as Porter Thayer’s photographs are to ours.”
— Laura Wallingford-Bacon, Williamsville
“We will never forget how Everett and Alan helped us after Irene when we lost our bridge. Ever grateful.”
— Joan Elliott, Wardsboro
Don’t miss this heartfelt tribute to family, legacy, and the enduring spirit of rural Vermont.
