Los Angeles filmmaker Tony Lee has just completed a documentary on issues facing the threatened big cats living in wild enclaves within metropolitan Los Angeles, including Griffith Park, the Verdugo Mountains and the Santa Monicas along the coast.

The film, “The Cat that Changed America,” focuses on the P-22 mountain lion in Griffith Park, which crossed two freeways to become hemmed in by urban sprawl.

The documentary, which follows the cat and those trying to build the wildlife crossing in Agoura Hills to help others like him, has just been accepted by the World International Film Festival in Los Angeles and New York. A trailer was posted this fall.

“Many of the issues facing mountain lions are due to man-made causes resulting in a lack of connectivity,” said Lee, a producer and director living in Los Angeles, in an email from London.

“Mountain lions are territorial animals which need very large home ranges, but they are hemmed in by urbanization and the development of our freeways,” Lee added. “As Los Angelenos, we have to decide if we are going to be responsible or inconsiderate neighbors if we are to live alongside mountain lions.”

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http://www.dailynews.com/environment-and-nature/20161203/p-45-cougar-drama-draws-attention-to-proposed-wildlife-freeway-crossing