Synopsis

Winner of the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, The Lake is a raw documentary that 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. Produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, this film is a reckoning with our choices and our systems, but also a testament to the possibility of redemption. YSFF FESTIVAL BADGES ACCEPTED

Cast

Bonnie Baxter

Genre

Documentary

Director

Abby Ellis