Many Utahns subscribe to the belief of the worth of even one soul.

In that case, their state’s inversion presents a problem.

A Hollywood filmmaker, Taylor Martin loved attending the Sundance Film Festival, the Robert Redford organization that is one of the best of its kind.

Martin had gone three years in a row, staying with his friend in Salt Lake City.

However, it’s been a few years since, with no guarantee of a return.

Talking with me about why, Martin strongly emphasized one word:

“Haze.”

“I still remember it being bad,” Martin said. “I still remember the air smelling like …”

Then, an admittance.

“Well, it smelled like exhaust coming out of the air,” he said, also later remarking: “The intensity of the smell to me was pretty dynamic.”

Seven or eight out of every 10 people were wearing masks in the city when Martin was there, he said.

Martin also thinks that even during Sundance, “a lot of people” will come to Salt Lake City, a half-hour drive from Park City, where the festival occurs.

There’s data to back him up: as many Utahns visit Salt Lake as Park City for the festival, with each city getting a 45.6 share. The share is among the 125,000 who attended the most recent festival. Only one event in Utah is a bigger draw, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Films at the festival also play in Salt Lake, and Martin pointed out a reality.

“Park City is not designed to have that many people all at once,” he said. “A lot of patrons end up staying outside of Park City … they drive down the hill and in 30 minutes, they are in Salt Lake.”

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Martin even needed to become “wary” of “normal activities,” he said. When he headed outside a gym he joined while in town, to get exercise, the gym owner said “you actually shouldn’t run outside at all,” Martin reported.

“Besides the odor,” Martin said, “it almost created a health concern for me.”

Now, Martin would need to stay in Park City or have a presence in the film festival, he said.

But you can all but discredit the first option.

“Almost every time I’ve gone up, I haven’t been able to find lodging (in Park City),” Martin said, noting any sort of lodging, hotels, shared living or otherwise, was unavailable.

“I don’t care what you looked at,” Martin said. “It was booked up in (Park City) pretty far in advance.”

So, unless you are rather wealthy, Salt Lake is the other option, Martin explained.

Martin pointed out that people could pursue “manufacturing methods” that could result in “less toxins into our atmosphere.”

While saying that “mills” are “always looking” to “maximize their profits,” he didn’t stop there.

“At some point, you have to consider the city as a whole; you have to consider people’s health as a whole,” Martin said. “You can still make a good profit margin and better the world that we live in.”

Martin noted that a visitor may see the nightlife and “the signs and the sounds of the city,” before seeing the inversion and remarking “what’s going on?”

“It’s damaging … to a pretty big extent to those people wanting to visit the state for those reasons,” Martin said, also having noted rock climbing and the outdoors, as he does for his down time.

Martin has “always been curious” if Sundance would move, he said, noting that it was “very purposeful that it had started in Salt Lake.”

“Really, it should only continue to rise in attendance every year if they continue to do things right,” Martin said. “It’s a great thing; it’s a place for creative to show their art in a big way, so I think it’s an amazing thing.”

“But again,” Martin added, “focusing on some of the issues that are currently in place, it’s important to keep it growing and to keep it thriving.”

Martin added that “With awareness comes change, and it takes certain voices to express that.”

“As writers, as creators, as the way that kind of mind works, at least for me, it’s ‘how can I help people?’” said Martin, the CEO of production company Martin Broz. “What kind of work can I do and tie it into people that I love?”

This year’s festival created a total economic impact of $191.6 million, 26.5 percent higher than the prior record of $151.5 in 2017. That was a result of the 125,000 figure for the most recent festival annihilating the record set the prior year, by 76 percent, the Tribune reported.

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Photo credit: Taylor Martin via Facebook