Book to movie, 11: The Colony: The Harrowing True Story Of The Exiles Of Molokai

Every four weeks, I will be writing about a book that I think could make a great movie.

I learned so much from The Colony: The Harrowing True Story Of The Exiles Of Molokai by John Tayman. In The Colony, Tayman details the stories and lives of the people with what was then called leprosy (and is now called Hansen's disease) who were banished to Molokai. While close to 9,000 people ultimately were exiled to Molokai, a quick Wikipedia search shows that four still live there.

I could see The Colony as either an informative documentary about medical segregation or a dynamic and powerful film that fictionalizes part of the story or, perhaps, just focuses on a few of the people whose lives are presented in this book. Either way, if the four people still living in the colony are open to it, their voices should be included.

The true story of this forced segregation is harrowing, but a vital one to tell. Creating a movie would help it reach a broader audience.

The Colony: The Harrowing True Story Of The Exiles Of Molokai by John Tayman, Scribner