“Return to the Tepuis”: Behind the Scenes With Filmmaker Joe Riis | Short Film Showcase

I feel incredibly lucky to be a wildlife
photojournalist to try to tell stories
about wildlife to the general public so
that tapu ease people calm the islands
in the sky big tabletop mountains with
two thousand foot waterfalls coming off
of the top of them I did not know a
place like that existed super cool
herpetologist named dr. bruce means and
me and climber marksinna went with him
last year and end up making a film about
his work there he had heard that there
was a frog in this sinkhole on top of a
tapu e this would link the frogs on the
lower elevation two pulleys to the
summit elevation two buoys and it would
answer a bunch of evolutionary questions
so we went in and he spent four nights
in the hole and found it he has a
singular focus and it’s frogs and
biodiversity it’s pretty awesome to
spend time with researchers and then as
a photographer I can just you know step
into their life just for a little bit
and you know just feel a little bit of
that that awesome passion towards our
world one of my favorite parts was just
filming them climb the twigs these are
tree climbing frogs and just looking at
the back of my camera has these frogs
climb up the twigs it’s like it’s pretty
incredible to see it on the camera but
then to look and see it right in front
of me too for me I just mean just to be
able to spend time with a wild creature
is incredible and and I’m very lucky you
know to be able to do that those type of
projects and that type of work is really
having an impact and as an adventure
that’s my goal its to bring wildlife in
front of people in front of the general
public