Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani

Cougar Coexistence

Cougar Co­ex­is­tence, 4k, 18 min., 2025

Fis­cher & el Sani's film Cougar Co­ex­is­tence tells the story of the ef­fects of re­cur­ring wild­fires, droughts, and floods from the per­spec­tive of a moun­tain lion in the Los An­ge­les area that has lost its habi­tat and seeks refuge in the gar­dens of lux­ury vil­las.
In the past years, many wild car­ni­vores in South­ern Cal­i­for­nia have left their nat­ural habi­tats, such as the Santa Mon­ica Moun­tains. Threats to their sur­vival in­clude frag­men­ta­tion from urban de­vel­op­ment, being struck and killed by a ve­hi­cle while cross­ing free­ways that cut through their ter­ri­to­ries, suf­fer­ing from the in­ges­tion of rat poi­son and the con­se­quences of man-made cli­mate change such as se­vere flood­ing and dev­as­tat­ing wild­fires.
Re­cently, pumas have begun to ven­ture deeper into L.A., wan­der­ing and stay­ing in res­i­den­tial areas for longer pe­ri­ods of time to find new tem­po­rary habi­tats.
The film is in­spired by a real-life night­time en­counter be­tween a teenage girl, ac­tu­ally the film­mak­ers' daugh­ter, and a cougar in the gar­den of the Villa Au­rora artist res­i­dency in Pa­cific Pal­isades, Los An­ge­les.