Director Abby Ellis discusses the film "The Lake," which follows three individuals 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.
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Matt Sampson / KPCW
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Matt Sampson / KPCW
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Matt Sampson / KPCW
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Abby Ellis, director of The Lake, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute
