Sundance review: 'The Lake' gives the Great Salt Lake its closeup, and highlights the people trying to save a fragile natural wonder

I may not be the right audience for “The Lake,” director Abby Ellis’ quietly compelling documentary about the environmental plight of the Great Salt Lake — because, as a journalist in Utah whose colleagues have reported on the lake for decades, I already know a lot of the information and some of the players in this film.

If you’re from outside Utah, or are in Utah but haven’t paid attention, Ellis’ movie is a bracing introduction to the problems of what The New York Times once called an “environmental nuclear bomb.”

Ellis starts in 2023, as several scientists warn about the dangers posed by the lake losing its water supply. Exposing the lake bed, they warned, would allow toxic dust — with chemicals like arsenic and cadmium — into the air, spreading up and down the Wasatch Front, threatening the health of some 3 million people downwind. 

Two of those scientists — ecologist Ben Abbott at Brigham Young University and biologist Bonnie Baxter at Westminster University — take the lead on a study that issues a dire warning: Within five years, the lake will shrink to the point where the dust will overwhelm hundreds of square miles in Utah and beyond.

Ellis’ documentary follows the aftermath of that report, which was roundly rejected by Utah political leaders, particularly after two years of good rain reset the timetable. Ellis shows Abbott wrestling with the urgency of the lake’s plight, and whether his passion to spread the word veers into activism. Baxter, on the other hand, deals with the possibility that lake bed exposure might be affecting her own health.

The third person highlighted in Ellis’ film is Brian Steed, a longtime player in Utah government, who’s tabbed to be the state’s first Great Salt Lake commissioner. Steed works to navigate the political landscape, seeking common ground between the two groups— farmers and cities — that use much of the water that isn’t getting to the lake. 

Ellis lays out complicated concepts, like how terminal lakes are created and how so many of them have ceased to exist, with lucid explanations — illustrated with gorgeous images of the lake’s eerie beauty. She also gives all sides a chance to tell their stories, as they seek to build bridges and work together to find a solution. It’s a rare documentary about the environment that doesn’t cast anyone as the bad guy, and doesn’t leave the audience without hope.

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‘The Lake’

★★★1/2

Screening in the U.S. Documentary competition of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Not rated, but probably PG for thematic elements. Running time: 88 minutes. 

The film will screen again: Friday, Jan. 23, 3 p.m., Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Salt Lake City; Wednesday, Jan. 28, noon, The Yarrow, Park City; Thursday, Jan. 29, 9:30 a.m., Holiday 1, Park City; Sunday, Feb. 1, 5:30 p.m., Park City Library, Park City. Also screening on Sundance’s web portal, Thursday through Sunday, Jan. 29 to Feb. 1.