Nicolas Hudak considers “Where God Likes to Be,” his documentary about the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, a portrait film.
It’s not about history, information or statistics.
Instead, over the course of a summer he and his wife Anna recorded the stories of three young Blackfeet tribal members, “people who actually love their home, regardless of the stereotypes or hardships that go along with that,” Hudak said.
Like many passion projects, it’s been a long time in the making.
Hudak grew up in Kalispell and left for film school in New Zealand. There, he met his wife, Anna, a German citizen. She came to visit him in Montana about 10 years ago, flying in and out of Calgary to save money.
On their drive back north to the airport, the two were caught in one of those “classic, hard-core winter days over on the east side,” Hudak said.
The roads disappeared under the snow, and the two were stranded in Browning.
From his upbringing in western Montana, including a summer on the west side of Glacier National Park, Hudak had a head full of stereotypes from what he was told about the reservation; but Anna with her “romantic, German perspective” was excited to visit.
They met interesting people during their visit, and the seeds of a documentary were planted. When Hudak returned to New Zealand and noticed how integral indigenous culture was to the national identity there, he knew he wanted to make a documentary about Native life in Montana.
Check out a clip of “Where God Likes to Be” below:
WHERE GOD LIKES TO BE Teaser from counter production on Vimeo.
Read more about the project from the Missoulian.
Photo by Nico Hudak
