“The Lake” is a documentary, made by Utah filmmaker Abby Ellis, that shares with its viewers the journey two local scientists, Ben Abbott, Ph.D., and Bonnie Baxter, Ph.D., take to try to save the Great Salt Lake from drying up.
Scene by scene, Abbott and Baxter walk the audience through recent scientific research done to measure the hazardous dust particles in the lake bed, and the potential danger of having them spread across many counties in Utah causing harm to the people who live there.
“We have known scientifically what we need to know about Great Salt Lake for 50 years … we’re using too much water,” said Abbott, associate professor at Brigham Young University.
Both Abbot and Baxter did a fantastic job explaining simply and clearly the science behind this environmental issue through this documentary. Their expertise combined with Ellis’ skillful filming and editing made this seemingly mundane subject matter interesting to all audience members.
However, the critique I have for this film is how it displayed religious practices as a means to persuade the members of the dominant religion of Utah, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to support their cause of saving the lake. I also didn’t like how much this film used dramatic language and effect to provoke an emotional response from its viewers, again, to gain more support for its cause.
“I think it’s a direct message to the people who live here that this is in our backyard, this potential catastrophe,” said Baxter, biology professor at Westminster University.
I’m all for a gripping drama, but the audience can feel when there is a subliminal message being sent to them, so filmmakers and their production teams should be careful how they are trying to send that message. Publicly displaying private, personal religious acts involving children to hopefully persuade people to support your cause was heavy handed and, in my opinion, a bit of a misstep.
If the cause is important then let it stand on its own merit to persuade people to support it. Share the facts and vision of how things should change and then let your audience make up their own minds about it. Nothing kills support faster than pandering to your audience members.
“A high school student called us up at Grow The Flow and said, ‘Will you buy us some chicken sandwiches?’ we said sure. She invited every student body president from all of the high schools in Salt Lake County,” Abbott said.
Overall, I would recommend this film to people who, like me, know very little about the issues surrounding the drying up of the Great Salt Lake. It does a great job of introducing what the issue is and one of the potential solutions for it. If you already know a great deal and are looking for further in depth knowledge on it, you could pass on watching it.
