Kalaupapa - Heaven

Kalaupapa, 20 minutes by plane from Honolulu, is a peninsula on the island of Molokai. It is a tropical paradise with beautiful beaches and swaying palms—and for the past 140 years it has been one of the world’s most famous leprosy colonies. In 1998 prolific Australian director, Paul Cox, was permitted by the former patients who still live there, to make Molokai, a biopic of Father Damien, in which David Wenham played the famed missionary who treated the inmates from his arrival in 1873 until his own death from leprosy (now known as Hansen’s Disease, which has long been treatable and non-contagious) in 1889. Documentary has long been a strong part of Cox’s output, and he has returned to make a record of the lives of those at Kalaupapa today. This is a moving and intimate portrait of people who, despite having so much suffering in their lives, remain a strong, compassionate and generous community.

Paul Cox and Mark Patterson are Guests of the Festival 

A place of stunning beauty, it's been blessed by nature's grandeur, and cursed by humanity's ignorance and fear.

visitmolokai.com