Lights

Join us after the film for a Q&A with directors Jodie Childers and Dan Messina!

They built a boat and launched a movement.

In the 1960s, the American folk singer Pete Seeger devised an extraordinary plan: he built a 106-foot sailboat to save the polluted Hudson River. Down by the Riverside follows the unlikely story of the Clearwater, a boat that launched a movement. An intimate portrait of Pete, his wife Toshi, and the grassroots community they anchored for over 40 years, the film takes the audience on a musical and nautical odyssey, showing how an unconventional campaign to save a beloved American waterway prompted a green revolution. The tale of the Clearwater is a parable for our time, offering hope for a fractured nation and revealing how participatory imagination can solve environmental problems and transform how we relate not only to the earth but also to one another.

About the Directors

Jodie Childers is a documentary filmmaker and writer based in NYC and Charlottesville, VA, where she is an assistant professor at the University of Virginia. She produced The Other Parade, and she directed and shot Down by the Riverside, which premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival. Her writing has been featured in American Quarterly, the Journal of Transnational American Studies, Comparative American Studies, The Conversation, Jacobin, Transatlantica, The Pittsburgh Review of Books, Boulevard, and The Hopkins Review, among others. She holds a Ph.D. in American studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Brooklyn College.

Dan Messina is a showrunner, director, and editor with twenty years of experience in nonfiction film and television. He directed the documentary feature Down by the Riverside, which premiered at the Woodstock Film Festival, and The Other Parade, which screened at Frameline and was broadcast on RTE. Dan is currently the showrunner for the hit series The Real Murders of Atlanta on Oxygen. He also executive-produced Women on Death Row for A&E, and he has served as showrunner, producer, and editor for shows on Discovery+, National Geographic, Investigation Discovery, and OWN, among others.

Image credit: Kew Ten Films

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO! The Paramount Theater is pleased to bring diverse programming to the stage and screen. The Theater does not provide advisories about subject matter for events, as sensitivities vary. Not all events may appeal to, or be appropriate for, every person. Patrons are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the shows offered in order to make informed decisions prior to purchasing tickets.

In addition to show synopses, trailers, and reviews on our web events, other resources about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb, and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches. For further questions, please contact the Box Office at 434.979.1333 or at boxoffice@theparamount.net, 10AM-2PM Monday-Friday + 1 hour before events.