RAISING THE RED FLAG on WILDLIFE ABUSE
I first met Raise The Red Flag creator Aaron Gekoski, cinematographer Will Foster-Grundy and director Chris Scarffe in the Kalimantan jungle in Indonesia as they filmed a segment for a series at several Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS Foundation) sites, in Borneo. The series was typical of their mission: The three filmmakers have combined forces to help save or at least improve living conditions for fellow creatures, such as orangutans, that share our planet.
For example, at the BOS Foundation facility in Nyaru Menteng, we encountered many orphaned orangutans. The orangutan mothers are often killed when they trespass onto palm oil plantations in search of food or when poachers attempt to take their infants to sell on the illegal wildlife trade market.
My interview with Foster-Grundy, whose clients include Discovery Channel, National Geographic and Smithsonian Channel, took place at his home base of Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian section of Borneo.
Digital Photo Pro: What’s The Raise the Red Flag project about?
Will Foster-Grundy: Aaron Gekoski came up with the concept of Raise the Red Flag. He’s an award-winning environmental photojournalist, filmmaker and TV presenter. I had met Aaron at the start of 2015 in Borneo when we both worked for the underwater natural history production company Scubazoo and instantly hit it off.
It started out as an online app that allows users to flag wildlife tourism operators with poor practices by taking pictures and writing reports and submitting them. It’s
