SALT LAKE CITY — Jan. 19, 2026 — Utah’s race to save Great Salt Lake is getting an international audience this week as the documentary, “The Lake” premieres at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and competes in the prestigious US Documentary Category.
The film follows Brigham Young University ecologist and Grow the Flow Executive Director Ben Abbott, alongside Westminster College Biologist Bonnie Baxter, University of Utah atmospheric scientist Kevin Perry, and Great Salt Lake Commissioner Brian Steed as they try to coordinate the restoration of what was previously the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere.
Premiering during Sundance’s final year in Utah, “The Lake” brings one of the country’s most urgent environmental crises to a global stage—in its home state, where the consequences are unfolding just outside theater doors. The documentary, directed by filmmaker Abby Ellis, explores the cascading ecological, economic, and public health impacts of a shrinking Great Salt Lake through the people navigating its decline.
“For me, this was never just about documenting a lake—it was about documenting people,” Ellis said. “I was drawn to the scientists, politicians, farmers and Utahns whose lives are inseparable from the lake’s fate. Their daily work has become a struggle to hold back disaster, not in grand arenas, but in fluorescent-lit meeting rooms and around kitchen tables.”
Great Salt Lake was the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere, but due to upstream diversions, it now hovers near historic lows—threatening air quality, ecosystems, and billions of dollars in economic activity. Scientists warn that without urgent action, the lake risks crossing irreversible thresholds—threatening the same kind of collapse that has devastated communities near drying saline lakes worldwide.
“These lakes are in decline globally, and no community anywhere has successfully restored their lake,” Abbott said. “Utah has resources that no other community has had, but the stakes are also higher than anywhere else with three million people living downwind of the lake. No single film can save the lake, but I hope and pray that this creates more awareness and commitment. So many lives depend on the lake, and the lake depends on us.”
Screenings of “The Lake” at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival:
- The Ray Theatre – 1/22/26, 2:30 PM – In Person Premiere
- Rose Wagner Center – 1/23/26, 3:00 PM – In Person Screening
- The Yarrow Theatre – 1/28/26, 12:00 PM – In Person Screening, Presented with Open Caption
- Holiday Village Cinema 1 – 1/29/26, 9:30 AM – In Person Screening
- Online – 1/29/26, 8:00 AM
- Park City Library Theatre – 2/1/26, 5:30 PM – In Person Screening
Single film tickets are available here.
Audience members who watch a screening are eligible to vote for “The Lake” for the Sundance Audience Award via the official post-screening survey.
