In the 1960s, the iconic American folk singer Pete Seeger devised an audacious plan—to build a sailboat to save the polluted Hudson River. But the Clearwater was not just a beautiful wooden vessel; it was also a movement, intersecting environmentalism, civil rights, and antiwar activism.

An intimate portrait of Pete and the grassroots community he anchored in the Hudson Valley for over forty years with his wife Toshi, Down by the Riverside shows how an unconventional campaign to save a beloved American waterway prompted a green revolution.

As the globe confronts a seemingly insurmountable climate crisis, this film is a parable for our time that offers hope for the next generation, revealing the potential of imagination, music, and participation to transform the planet.