Pembina Trails Proud of Oak Park's film teacher, James McLellan

Pembina Trails School Division recognizes the amazing impact of film teacher James McLellan and the filmmaking program at Oak Park High School. James was featured in the most recent edition of The Manitoba Teachers' Society – MB Teacher Magazine.

Building Resilience Through Film – The Manitoba Teachers' Society

The Global Competencies were absolutely highlighted in the article, and how James nurtures creativity, collaboration, and most evident - connection to self. 

 Congratulations, James. So grateful for your impact, and your continued openness to mentoring colleagues. 

James is also a filmmaker himself. Hair of the Bear, James' feature narrative debut, co-written/co-directed by Alexandre Trudeau, opens starting March 5 in Winnipeg.                                                                               

HAIR OF THE BEAR

Directed by Alexandre Trudeau and James McLellan
 Starring Malia Baker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHRZ224eAsU

Sometimes survival is not about strength.
It is about instinct.

Hair of the Bear, the atmospheric Canadian survival thriller directed by Alexandre Trudeau and James McLellan, makes its theatrical debut across Canada beginning March 6th.

Set against the stark, unforgiving beauty of a frozen wilderness, Hair of the Bear stars Malia Baker, beloved by young audiences worldwide for her breakout roles in The Baby-Sitters Club and Descendants 4. With the actor moving into much darker, more mature territory, Baker plays Tori, an anxious sixteen-year-old sent to live with her reclusive grandfather after refusing to attend school. What begins as emotional exile escalates into a fight for survival when Tori is thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse deep in the remote woods.

Roy Dupuis (La Femme Nikita) delivers a commanding performance as Benoit, Tori’s hardened grandfather. Returning to the archetype of the woodsman, Dupuis imbues the role with both gravitas and authenticity, grounding the film’s emotional core as the physical stakes intensify.

Directed by Alexandre Trudeau—best known for his geopolitical documentaries Embedded in Baghdad and The New Great Game—alongside longtime educator and filmmaker James McLellan, Hair of the Bear marks a striking narrative collaboration. Moody, visceral, and unrelenting, it explores teenage mental resilience and ties it to the primal instinct to survive when comfort and certainty are stripped away.

The film is produced by Juliette Hagopian, a champion of independent genre cinema in Manitoba, with cinematography by Stefan Ciupek (Russian Ark, Antichrist, Dredd) and production design by Oscar Fenoglio (Cube, Wintertide).