Encore presentation of ‘Bills Lumber’ Jan. 18

After a “sold-out” free premiere, Bills Lumber, a documentary about the last days of the Bills family’s beloved antique sawmill, will be shown again at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 18 in Williamsville Hall, 35 Dover Road in Newfane. The building is handicapped accessible.

The free 45-minute video follows the Bills family, after the mill sold along with 433 adjoining acres, as they prepare to demolish the working sawmill that their late father Melbourne Bills had established in 1936.

Melbourne’s sons, Alan and Everett, now in their 80s, talk about what it was like to grow up on Bills Hill, their family compound on Route 100 in Wardsboro. They recount harrowing tales of fire and flood and tell funny stories about delivering wood. Following the movie, Alan and Everett will participate in a question-and-answer session.

Videographer Theresa Maggio had interviewed the formidable Melbourne Bills and his wife, Mabel, back in the early 1990s when she was a reporter for the Brattleboro Reformer. “The moment I heard that Bills Lumber had been sold, I knew I had to tell the story. It was a world fading away.”