The first Friday of each month, the Wildling Art Museum in Los Olivos, a museum devoted to the art of America’s wilderness, screens notable films about nature or art and invites the public to come see them free of charge. The Museum also provides free popcorn and cookies, wine, water, and soft drinks. Reservations are not required, but space is limited and seats are available on a first come, first served basis.

The Free Friday Flicks are underwritten by a generous grant from The Valley Foundation.

“Counting Sheep: Restoring the Sierra Nevada Bighorn”

What happens when a protected predator threatens an endangered prey? High in California’s Sierra Nevada wilderness, the last few native bighorn sheep are fighting for survival because of threats from mountain lions. This conflict is the subject of the Wildling Art Museum’s Free Friday Flick shown on June 1, “Counting Sheep: Restoring the Sierra Nevada Bighorn.”

This 60 minute film, produced by Green TV, Inc. of San Francisco and narrated by Diane Baker, is about two remarkable men who stand between the bighorn and their extinction: an oboe-playing mountain man turned consummate scientist and his unlikely ally, a mountain lion tracker of skill and instinct—a modern-day frontiersman. This dramatic story is played out in the breath-taking remote reaches of the bighorn habitat: jagged cliffs, far-flung canyons and narrow ledges two miles high. “Counting Sheep” was a finalist in the 2004 Banff Mountain Film Festival and won the Peoples’ Choice Award at the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival in the same year.

The movie began at 7:30 p.m. and was shown at the Wildling Art Museum’s administrative offices, 2948 Nojoqui Street, Suite 4. For more information or directions, call 688-1082.