An interview with Montana Film-maker Per Saari

April 06, 2011

Major-league Hollywood producer and Bozeman native, PER SAARI, came to town 3.31.11 for the Bozeman Film Festival’s screening of his Academy Award-nominated film, Rabbit Hole.

Interviewed by Valerie Harms, Editor

Per Saari is the 35-year-old son of Dr. George Saari, a beloved Bozeman doctor, and Anne Trygstag. His father died in a cross-country skiing accident in Yellowstone Park in 2007, preceded by Per’s brother Hans, a world-class, ski-mountaineer and skilled writer, who died in a climb in 2001. Saari directed a documentary film, Why He Skied, which explores the life and death of his brother. The Hans Saari Memorial Fund in Bozeman (www.hansfund.org) was formed to provide financial and educational aid to ski adventurers.

In the Q & A after the film showing, Per said that as a boy, he attended Bozeman Film Festival showings and that he was proud the BFF has persevered offering quality films, especially independents. His first glimpse of movie-making was watching scenes from Amazing Grace and Chuck shot on Willson Street in 1985 at the age of 10.

VH: I am particularly interested in your Montana connection. For instance, what years of your life did you live in Bozeman?

PER: I moved with my family from Seattle when I was nine. My mom and dad were drawn to the mountains, to Bozeman's quality of life and to its being a university town with great cultural offerings. Bozeman even had a ballet in 1985, although I seem to recall the dancing was performed to a record player that had a tendency to skip. I went to college in Maine and New York, but came back to Bozeman to work on my first feature film, The Horse Whisper. I was a PA for nearly two years, an unusually long time for a Hollywood film. I got a job working for Redford in LA after that.

VH: Were/are you as athletic as your family?

PER: My family is filled with mountain people, very serious adventure athletes. My sister and brother were both professional skiers. My dad was an exceptional skier and runner as well. My mom has done the Montana Ridge Run more times than I can count. I think she was sponsored for a while. I literally cannot compete within my own family, although I am a closet triathlete. I just finished my first triathlon last weekend.

VH: What were the steps that led you to producing for such noted filmmakers as Robert Redford?

PER: I was given a big break by a producer, who now lives in Bozeman, Patrick Markey. I met Patrick and Redford when I was in high school on A River Runs Through It and was desperate to be involved somehow. When they came back to Montana with The Horse Whisperer, I did everything I could to get my rather meager resume on their desks. I think Patrick didn't know what to do with me, so stuck me in the production office, which sparked great friendships with people I still work with.

VH: What led to the collaboration with Nicole Kidman and the formation of Blossom Films?

PER: Nicole and I really connected over our love of movies, of classic films by Polanksi and Cassavetes. She wanted to start a company that focused on stories about something, by new and fresh filmmakers and writers, a company that was designed to support the artist through the difficult process of getting a film made. Our similar sensibilities brought us together and we started Blossom at Fox in 2006.

[Editor’s note: Other upcoming Blossom films include Monte Carlo with Selena Gomez and Lasse Halstrom’s The Danish Girl, in which Nicole Kidman plays a transsexual and also stars Rachel Weisz.]

VH: Do you come back to Bozeman very often? Do you have relatives here.

PER: I love Bozeman—it will always be home to me. My favorite thing is coming home for Christmas, leaving LA on a hot, sunny day, and flying into the magic of a Montana winter, getting off that little airplane and seeing the snow and my family. Bozeman is about family, and that is the most important thing to me.