Eric Lepionka

On the short film 'The last Night' my team and I had the privilege of working with the producers father and director's father in law, Eric Lepionka. Eric joined our construction team from day 1, It could be said the team was built around him.  Eric, born 1936, evacuated Poland with his family, travelled through Kazakhstan to Siberia to evade German occupation. In 1944 along with 732 other polish children Eric came to a refugee camp here in Pahiatua, New Zealand where he lived for 4 1/2 years before becoming a citizen of NZ.  He has lived his life here in NZ and has made what can only be described as a massive and generous contribution to the NZ Polish community and broader community as a whole.

For the film we built the mud hut of an Afghanistan Warlord . Eric was quick to tell us of the small hut where he lived in Kazakhstan in detail right down to door height. His memory of those events was vivid and rich. His was a wonderful presence on the project and a reminder to this designer of Mies van der Rohe's famous words 'God is in the Details'.

I must commend David(director) and Wanda(producer) for the environment they created on this project. Every member, their story and their art was welcome and valued. My gratitude must also be extended to my team. Brett Blenkin, Ross Hoby, Hamish Wain, Lucy Bowden, Raoul Darlington, Michael Simpson, Aaron Huriwaka, Jo Williams, Crystalynne Willis, Antony Goodin, Neil Cromie, Jack Cromie, Duane Williams and Sonia Murray.  This team delivered great art.  They followed the lead of the director and grew an environment that held our stories and community together.  Without their work we would have never heard the story of Eric and been privileged with a stronger connection to our heritage and our New Zealand story.

There will always be new things to learn about this craft of making film. This team though has nothing more to learn about how to hold that craft. Well done everyone!