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White Wilderness
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
White Wilderness is an Academy Award-winning nature commentary produced by Disney in 1958 noted for its splendid visuals as well as its propagation of the myth of lemming suicide.
The film was directed by James Algar and narrated by Winston Hibler. It was filmed on location in Canada over the course of three years.
White Wilderness contains a scene that supposedly depicts a mass lemming migration, and ends with the lemmings leaping to their deaths into the Arctic Ocean. However, the entire sequence was staged and does not reflect the true behaviour of lemmings.
The sequence was filmed by photographer James R. Simon in Alberta, Canada, which has no lemming population (and indeed no ocean). The filmmakers bought trapped lemmings from Inuit schoolchildren in Manitoba and transported them to the set. A few dozen lemmings, placed on a large, snow-covered turntable and filmed from a variety of angles became a mass migration. As a grand finale, the captive lemmings were herded over a cliff into a river; in the film, the narrator states that the lemmings are falling into the sea and are on a "suicide drive".[1]
Generations of TV watching schoolchildren grew up on the Disney nature films, and the myth of lemming suicide persists to this day.
- ^ Barbara and David P. Mikkelson, 'White Wilderness'. 1996. Snopes.com.
| Preceded by Albert Schweitzer |
Academy Award for Documentary Feature 1958 |
Succeeded by Serengeti Shall Not Die |