This Was The Place
A coming-of-age journey unfolds as Utah youth fight to save a vanishing Great Salt Lake. Confronting ecological collapse, they stage scenes of their own apocalyptic futures—blurring documentary and fiction in a cinematic protest that asks: Are they rehearsing for what’s coming, or fighting to rewrite it?
THIS WAS THE PLACE follows Utah youth determined to be the first in the world to save a dying saline lake. They turn their fears of a future without Great Salt Lake into fuel for action, staging visions of their apocalyptic lives. The film becomes a cinematic protest that asks: are they rehearsing for what’s coming, or fighting to rewrite it?
As toxic metals in the exposed lakebed raise the risk of respiratory illness and cancer, and projections warn the lake could vanish in the near future, a group of friends transform their climate grief. They act out scenes from imagined futures—gas-masked birthday parties, ski slopes swallowed by dust, animals going extinct—then step back into the present to protest. The film interweaves these apocalyptic vignettes with verité from their lives. As the shoreline retreats, they navigate school, work, faith, identity, and growing up in a place they refuse to abandon.