Producer Mark Patterson has said that this film was "one of the great pleasures of working with director-adventurer Paul Cox is that you experience things that most other people don't. Paul had worked and befriended the leprosy patients on the Hawaiian Island of Molokai when he was making 'Father Damien' [aka 'Molokai: The Story of Father Damien']. Years later, after we had made a number of films together and had failed dramatically to finance our next film we both mused that we "just wanted to make something without going through the bullshit" . And we did - six weeks later, with the help of the Adelaide Film Festival and the South Australian Film Corporation, we stepped off a small plane on to the Kalaupapa Peninsula of Molokai. We had been invited to this closed community by the last remaining leprosy patients who'd been exiled to the island since they were children. With a small crew in tow we started recording their life stories in what became a feature length documentary honoring their existence. I feel immensely privileged to have met these people - people who have every right to feel bitter towards the world but who instead have found their own peace of heaven. My only regret is that the film has not been seen widely. I'll never completely understand why, but I do believe a little bit of prejudice and fear lurks in people hearts when you mention the word "leper". See the film if you can and see how very wrong that is."
The film was awarded a Halekulani Golden Orchid Special Mention at the Hawaii International Film Festival in October 2007.
Throughout his film career, Dutch ex-patriot Australian filmmaker Paul Cox was nominated seven times for an AFI (Australian Film Institute) Award for Best Director or Best Direction and these nominations were all for theatrical feature films and not one was in television. My First Wife (1984) was the only time he won an AFI Award for Best Director or Best Direction. He was nominated for directing for the following six films: Lonely Hearts (1982), Man of Flowers (1983), Cactus (1986), Island (1989), Golden Braid (1990) and Lust and Revenge (1996). He was also nominated in other categories for The Trespassers (1976) (cinematography), We Are All Alone My Dear (1975) (documentary), Vincent (1987) (adapted screenplay), A Woman's Tale (1991) (screenplay, original or adapted) and Nijinsky: The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky (2001) (documentary). Cox was also nominated for AFI Awards for screenwriting seven times and not one was in television. These screenwriter nominations were for Lonely Hearts (1982), Man of Flowers (1983), Island (1989), Vincent (1987), A Woman's Tale (1991) and Golden Braid (1990), and again, he only ever won an AFI Screenwriting Award for My First Wife (1984). Cox was not nominated for an AFI Award for 'Kaluapapa Heaven' (2007).