Have you seen Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon” yet on Netflix? Did you know there’s a connection to Southern Oregon?
Klamath Falls native and friend of Klamath Film, Bergen Swanson, is executive producer of Snyder’s latest sci-fi epic. Bergen grew up in Klamath working in his dad’s bike shop (The Yankee Peddler), and applied the skills learned there towards filmmaking. A graduate of Mazama High School and the University of Oregon, he originally studied architecture, but a friend who was working on set-building for Star Trek at the time got Bergen hooked on the film industry. Fast forward several decades and he has worked on over 30 major films, including iconic award-winning films like Precious, Wild, 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
Now residing in Vermont, Bergen is busy in the industry as a producer and line producer on many major films. While his career has leaned towards more artsy films, in an interview with the Herald & News he talked about how always loved Star Wars style sci-fi — so congrats Bergen on being able to fulfill this side of your filmmaking.
‘My job is very similar to what I did at that (Klamath Falls) bike store. I ran that store a lot of times, and my job is kind of like running a small business with each film. Nothing I do is rocket science, it’s problem-solving and people skills, which I learned from that shop.’
— Bergen Swanson
Film producer
On top of that, Bergen is a super nice guy who has taken time out of his busy schedule to speak to our students in the Klamath Film Youth Film Camp each summer via Zoom, and has served as an awards judge for the annual Klamath Independent Film Festival.
“I have two minds about movies – I like to be challenged and think, but at the heart of me I like space and car chases and things blowing up, too,” Swanson told the Herald & News in 2018.
Learn more about Bergen’s incredible career from this 2018 H&N article:
https://www.heraldandnews.com/news/local_news/from-klamath-to-hollywood/article_3d3dc4e8-2c28-5fad-8e46-ccc082229f70.html
