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US Documentary Special Jury Award: Impact for Change
An environmental nuclear bomb looms in Utah. Two intrepid scientists and a political insider race the clock to save their home from unprecedented catastrophe.
+ MoreUS Documentary Special Jury Award: Impact for Change
An environmental nuclear bomb looms in Utah. Two intrepid scientists and a political insider race the clock to save their home from unprecedented catastrophe.
Urgency emanates from this sober record that local Utah filmmaker Abby Ellis logs in human history — a chapter of monumental ecological and social consequence unfolding in our shared home. Intertwining the inextricable fates of the Great Salt Lake and the millions of people who live, work, and travel surrounding it, Ellis achieves an existential scope that is both terrifying and motivating, wrought with divinity and doom. Balancing beautifully the perspectives, burdens, contributions, and challenges of Utah’s top political leaders, agricultural providers, and scientific thinkers, The Lake captures the intricate complexity that binds these communities together. In tackling this epic tale about the power and responsibility of knowledge and how to disseminate it, Ellis is a responsible, constructive steward of her lineage both as a Utahn and an environmental filmmaker. — AC
Abby Ellis
Fletcher Keyes
Abby Ellis
Leonardo DiCaprio
Jennifer Davisson
Phillip Watson
Jessica Harrop
Caitlin Mae Burke
Chai Vasarhelyi
Anna Barnes
Jimmy Chin
Geralyn Dreyfous
Heather Kahlert
Rachel Crane
Sandbox Films
Ibis Films
Little Monster Films
Cranium Productions
Abby Ellis
Emelie Mahdavian
Alex Takats
Abby Ellis
Natalia Tsupryk
Plot Shift Media
Emelie Mahdavian
Sanbox Films
Patrick Hurley
patrick@sandboxfilms.org
Abby Ellis is a Peabody- and Emmy-nominated director and journalist whose films explore the moments and institutions that shape our lives. Her work blends careful reporting with a strong sense of humanity, bringing the real stakes of complicated stories into sharp, relatable focus.
Festival Favorite Award Winner
Against political resistance and industry skepticism, Luis Valdez pushes Chicano storytelling from the fields to the film screen with Zoot Suit and La Bamba, crafting iconic works that challenge, celebrate, and expand America’s story.
(1hr 32mins)When the small town of Marion, Kansas, is thrust into the international spotlight after a police raid on the Marion County Record and the death of its 98-year-old co-owner, a fierce debate ignites about the abuse of power, journalistic ethics, local journalism, and the United States Constitution.
(1hr 34mins)Directing Award: US Documentary
From deep behind enemy lines, a hidden chapter of American military history is uncovered, prompting the question of whether reckoning with the past can bring peace to those who lived it. The Vietnam War’s first Black special operations team reunites to tell their story.
(1hr 40mins)An unprecedented look inside one of the greatest media experiments to hijack American screens. Rare archives from New York’s underground capture a world of creators who shattered rules, defied censors, and transformed our televisions into a free-speech battleground where anyone could be a star.
(1hr 47mins)Presenting Sponsors
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