Town of 200 People Builds Fully Functional Cinema — In 6 Weeks, From Scratch

Millbrook, Vermont has 203 residents, one general store, and as of six weeks ago — its own functioning cinema. When the nearest movie theatre, 40 miles away, closed its doors permanently last spring, the residents of Millbrook held a town meeting. The discussion, which was expected to last 30 minutes, lasted four hours. By the end, they had a plan, a volunteer roster, and a barn that someone thought might work.

The Build

None of the volunteers were professional builders. They were farmers, teachers, a retired nurse, a librarian, two plumbers, and a surprising number of people who turned out to be “pretty good at electrical work, actually.” Every Saturday and Sunday for six weeks, the entire available adult population of Millbrook descended on the old Wheeler barn on the edge of town. It was insulated, wired, painted, and fitted with 47 seats salvaged from a theatre that was closing in the next town over. A local electrician figured out the projection system with help from three YouTube tutorials.

Opening Night

The first film shown at the Millbrook Community Cinema was selected by popular vote. It was a classic — the kind of film everyone had seen before, but nobody minded watching again. Every single seat was filled.

Why The Video Is Everywhere

A documentary filmmaker who happened to be passing through captured the whole six weeks on camera. The 8-minute cut he posted online has been viewed 33 million times. It has no narration — just the footage, the people, and the work. “We just didn’t want to drive 40 miles,” one volunteer explains in the film, slightly out of breath while hammering something. “It didn’t seem that complicated.” It wasn’t. It really wasn’t.