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 Disheartened by a lack of culture and jobs in the war-scarred West
African nation, the 27-year-old launched Kriterion Monrovia - a
student-run organization which hosts cultural events, screens films
and offers young people part-time work.
"Since the end of the war, Liberia's focus has been mainly on
healthcare and education... cinema is a way of bringing back culture
and inspiring communities across the country," she said.
Liberia had been slowly rebuilding from a 14-year civil war that
ended in 2003 when the Ebola epidemic erupted almost two years ago,
ravaging the country and destroying livelihoods.
While Liberia - the country hardest-hit by the virus with some 4,800
deaths - was declared Ebola-free for a third time last month, high
youth unemployment in a country where six in 10 people are under the
age of 24 is holding back its recovery.
"Kriterion is a platform for culture... but it also offers hope,
opportunities and work experience to young people, which may help
them find jobs in the future," said Hodge.
Kriterion, founded by students in Amsterdam after World War Two and
adopted in post-conflict cities such as Sarajevo, was set up in 2011
in Liberia, a country with few filmmakers where people tend to watch
movies in ramshackle bars and restaurants.
The group has traveled to communities across Liberia armed with a
projector and a variety of films - ranging from documentaries to
Charlie Chaplin classics - giving many people their first taste of
cinema and watching movies on a big screen.
Films are chosen, based on discussions with the villagers, to
educate, trigger debates and make people laugh, Hodge said.
"I have never seen something make an entire community laugh so much
as Charlie Chaplin. Every generation can relate to the daily trouble
he gets into, it is timeless," she said, recalling hundreds of
people huddled tightly together on wooden benches.
ENTREPRENEURS WANTED
Bustling around her recently-opened restaurant "Pandora's Basket" -
greeting customers and taking orders - Hodge brims with pride as she
talks about Kriterion's response to Ebola.
Their screenings were brought to a halt in 2014 by a ban on
gatherings during the epidemic, but Hodge and her team of 72 student
volunteers were undeterred. They went to the Ministry of Health and
asked to be trained to inform people about the virus.
"We went door-to-door in communities where we had held screenings,
where people knew us," Hodge said. "People didn't trust the
government, but they felt comfortable talking to us."
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Frustrated that the Ebola response focused mainly on Monrovia,
Kriterion visited every virus hotspot and more than 400 communities
across Liberia - shooting footage along the way to produce a
documentary called "Understanding kills Ebola".
"We wanted to highlight the impact of Ebola outside of the capital
and give voices to those going unheard," Hodge said.
Kriterion has also encouraged people to direct, shoot and edit their
own films, many focusing on common issues in Liberian society -
ranging from the accountability of government to post-war recovery.
Hodge was only eight years old when her family was forced to flee
their home in Montserrado during Liberia's 14-year civil war -
walking through swamplands to their second house in West Point slum
to avoid the violence unfolding in the capital.
"The hardest part of the war was people starving - everyone was
malnourished and that was truly terrible to see," she said.
But standing in the kitchen of her restaurant, frying fish while
stirring a pot full of golden pumpkin soup, Hodge prefers to discuss
Liberia's future rather than dwell on the past.
The entrepreneur, restaurateur and sociology student plans to open
Liberia's first art-house cinema, in the capital, and hopes that
more young people will seek to better themselves.
"More young people should be challenging themselves, seeking
opportunities and getting creative," said Hodge, offering advice to
her restaurant's 16-strong staff - half of whom are students.
"Liberia needs more young entrepreneurs."
(Reporting By Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit
the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson
Reuters,
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