| James Algar | |
| Birth Date: | 11 June 1912 |
| Birth Place: | Modesto, California, United States |
| Death Place: | Carmel, California, United States |
| Occupation: | Film director, screenwriter, film producer |
| Yearsactive: | 1934–1977 |
James Algar (June 11, 1912 - February 26, 1998)[1] was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer.[2] He worked at Walt Disney Productions for 43 years and received the Disney Legends award in 1998.[3] He was born in Modesto, California and died in Carmel, California.
In 1958, Algar directed an Oscar-winning documentary White Wilderness, which contains a scene that supposedly depicts a mass lemming migration, and ends with the lemmings leaping into the Arctic Ocean. In 1982, the CBC Television news magazine program The Fifth Estate broadcast a documentary about animal cruelty in Hollywood called Cruel Camera, focusing on White Wilderness, as well as the television program Wild Kingdom. The host of the CBC program, Bob McKeown, discovered that the lemming scene was actually filmed at the Bow River near Canmore, Alberta, and further that the same small group of lemmings was transported to the location, jostled on turntables, and repeatedly shoved off a cliff to imply mass suicide.[4]
McKeown interviewed a lemming expert, who claimed that the particular species of lemming shown in the film is not known to migrate, much less commit mass suicide.[5] [6]