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

An intimate portrait of an iconic American musician, his ingenious spouse Toshi, and the participatory grassroots community they anchored in the Hudson Valley for over forty years, 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 power of imagination to transform the planet.