Boulder Environmental Nature Outdoors Film Festival 2026: The Lake

TICKETS
Director Abby ellis will join us in person
Climate Change Doc From Leonardo DiCaprio, Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi Raises Alarms About the Fate of the Great Salt Lake
An environmental nuclear bomb looms in Utah, as they race to prevent a catastrophic ecological and public health collapse.
The Lake is a vérité film that follows three individuals (two intrepid scientists Bonnie Baxter and Ben Abbott alongside political insider Brian Steed) fighting to save a dying lake. They see what’s coming—poisoned air, a collapsing ecosystem, a community on the brink—and they throw themselves into the everyday, often mundane work of trying to stop it. As they push against bureaucracy, apathy, and the ticking clock of a crisis decades in the making, something eerie and heartbreaking lingers at the edges: the dust rising in the background, a reminder of what will be lost if they fail.
2026 Sundance Winner –  Special Jury Award for Impact for Change
“‘The Lake’ is so much more than a regionally isolated issue documentary. Its lessons should apply to every single environmental fight around the world.” -Variety
Directed by Abby Ellis | Runtime: 88 minutes