Directed by Utah-based filmmaker Abby Ellis, "The Lake" traces the work of scientists and policy figures grappling with the Great Salt Lake's ongoing water loss and its projected effects on air quality and public health — a film now drawing audiences through free screenings held in downtown Salt Lake City.
As her team's understanding of the health risks tied to windblown dust from the exposed lakebed deepened, Ellis — who had moved to Utah from Michigan — described how that growing awareness gave shape to the project. Reporting on the Flint, Michigan, water crisis led Ellis to observe that the relationship between environmental contamination and public health outcomes was difficult to overlook, and in a statement Ellis described how learning that heavy metals had accumulated in the lakebed — and that wind was carrying the resulting dust into the air — made the story's newsworthiness apparent to the reporting team.
Profiles of researchers and agency insiders populate the film, their professional attention now largely devoted to the retreating waterline and what can be done to slow it.
"The Lake" had its festival debut earlier this year at Sundance in Park City, where jurors granted it the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Impact for Change. The film is now playing at Broadway Centre Cinemas — a venue on 300 South between State and Main streets run by the Salt Lake Film Society.
Attendance at the theater's special screenings has been running close to capacity, according to Landon, who manages the venue. A trip from Park City brought Reid to a screening of the documentary. Reid expressed ongoing concern about declining lake levels and an interest in exploring what remedies might be available, while also acknowledging reservations about certain proposals under discussion. Reid pointed to addressing the exposed lakebed as a matter belonging at the centre of those ongoing talks.
Ellis called on Utah residents to view the film, noting in remarks that environmental consequences could take hold within a matter of years rather than the decades many might assume, with the affected landscape being the one those residents inhabit.
The documentary, which runs approximately 90 minutes, is intended to convey the scale of the challenge facing the lake while also drawing attention to the efforts being made toward solutions, Ellis said. Complimentary admission is available at both the 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. showings each day at Broadway Centre Cinemas, with programming running through Thursday. Tickets for Sunday's 2 p.m. showing were fully booked, though the Salt Lake Film Society accepts online requests for seats.
