Savannah Electric: A Monochrome Dystopia - a film by Perry Mark Stratychuk
Savannah Electric: A Monochrome Dystopia is the original black and white version (as released on video in 1987) of the first science-fiction feature film made in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Originally shot on 16mm color film in the mid-eighties.
Influenced by Sergio Leone and his "spaghetti westerns", on an ultra-low-budget I created an artistic and stylized science fiction tale of a rogue clone worker's half-conscious rebellion against the first thinking machine (A.I.). It was my own vision of an SF "Canadian dystopia" with a budget of around 15,000$ US.
The film stars Dean V. Beckman and Jack Urbanski and features a voice-over by Christopher Sigurdson.
I shot much of the film in Canada's "desert" near Brandon, Manitoba at the Spruce Woods Provincial Park. The "Spirit Sands" is adjacent to a Canadian Forces army tank training area, where we felt the ground shake from practice firing kilometers away! (Don't even mention the heat OR the bears.)
The very cool electronic music soundtrack was composed, performed, and recorded by Tom Paterson, of the Winnipeg band Cottage Industry, a synth-pop / new wave band, that was later signed to Capitol Records, where they released a number of albums and EPs.
The film was first screened as a "work-in-progress" at the Houston WorldFest in Texas and saw limited video distribution in Asia.
At the time, I was deeply affected by the first Sci-fi feature film Metropolis by Fritz Lang, and decided to finish the film in B/W video. To stream, the original 16mm color version of Savannah Electric click HERE.
Produced, directed, photographed, and edited by Perry Mark Stratychuk
Soundtrack by Tom Paterson
Copyright 1985-2023 All Rights Reserved
A feature length artistic, stylized science fiction tale of a rogue clone worker's half-conscious rebellion against the first thinking machine (A.I.).