'140 Years' Of Steinbach History

Laszlow Markovics has completed his third film about Mennonite history.

'140 Years' was screened at Mennonite Heritage Village Thursday evening, telling the story of Steinbach's history.  Completing the documentary took Markovics just shy of one year and he explains it follows several storylines, including the Peters and Loewen families.

"This storyline is from 1873 from the first delegation," Markovics describes.  "How they got here, Jakob Peters was the leader of the delegation, how they were looking for new land and new areas to settle.  Basically, he was the person who made the decision about moving to the Steinbach area."

The idea for the documentary came after Markovics' second film was screened at MHV.  Markovics was speaking with MHV Executive Director Barry Dyck, and they both believed it would be great to have another documentary.  That idea came to fruition Thursday when '140 Years' was presented at MHV.

"It was excellent, we had a full house," Markovics notes.  "We had members from both families, the Loewen family and the Peters family.  We had a very eager audience, they love seeing these old stories."

Markovics would like to continue the Mennonite storyline with a fourth film, this time featuring the families that moved to South America.  However, he says it is a large project that would require funding, so for now it's just an idea.

'140 Years' can be purchased through MHV.