DEPARTED HARVEST

JoDa Hodge is the director of the New York Film and Television Festival. He was born on Vermont's Bean Hollow Commune near the abandoned Concord Air Force Base to a teacher and a carpenter.

After receiving degrees in English, Psychology and Communications, he rode his Harley solo cross-country to publish Freedom Road, a travel memoir about the broken American Dream.

Over the next six years, JoDa wrote a 10,669 series outline and 17 one-hour episodes of the Departed Harvest dark comedy, winning the 2011 American International and the 2011 Rhode Island Film Festival Screenplay Competitions, an Honorable Mention at the 2016 Colorado International Film Festival and other accolades.

Departed Harvest is a 96-page “backdoor pilot”—a feature film that doubles as a film/TV series pilot, to be shot in Vermont. JoDa polished the series with mentorship from Jacob Kreuger Studio, Larry Holden (Memento), Jerome Perzigian (Married With Children), Steve Molton (HBO) and Hawk Ostby (Iron Man).

The series gleans inspiration from several true life stories: JoDa’s friend sold his soul to a dangerous Northern California underground, trying to finance his Rock band, blended with JoDa's Commune-Air Force Base heritage and the tragic loss of his Brother.

These allegorical stories galvanize our dystopian tale, set one week into the future, starring Navajo inspirational speaker, Loren Anthony, and Assyrian-German actor, Natalie Odisho.

JoDa wrote, produced, directed, shot and edited his short Departed Harvest proof of concept film at Luis Guzman’s home in Vermont. JoDa’s beloved cat was killed by the actor’s dog and the film partnership truncated. (This event inspired a film we are developing…)

JoDa is currently raising his daughter and working on blueprints for his “Film Farm”—serving Indie films and fresh food all year round.