In 1969, America was at war in Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement was front page news. Years later, UVA Professor and filmmaker Jodie Childers would learn about a musical leader of the time.
"I had known a lot about Pete Seeger – his relationship with Woody Guthrie, the labor movement, the civil rights movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement," she recalls.
But she wasn’t aware of another passion he shared with the world – fighting pollution.
"That period of his life was almost fifty years."
"This is just one little segment of the whole worldwide pollution crisis," Seeger said, "but you can’t save the world if you can’t save the sewer that runs past your front door."
Seeger and his wife Toshi had a home on the Hudson, and they built a movement to save it – commissioning a single-masted ship known as a sloop.
As he strummed his banjo, Seeger explained: "This summer we’ll have a big old-fashioned wooden sailboat, 75 feet long with a mast 100 feet high, such as used to carry farm produce down to the city a hundred years ago, and we’ll sail it up and down the river, stopping at every town – large and small – put on shows and waterfront celebrations and hope that we can remind the people of this valley that their river doesn’t have to be a permanent sewer."
It launched from a shipyard in Maine with two thousand people – including the governor – on hand.
"One, two, three!" the crowd changed. "I christen thee Clearwater. (cheers)
Working with co-director Dan Messina, Childers crafted a film about Seeger that she thinks will inspire Americans nearly 60 years later.
"The message is more urgent now than ever, and I do think it will resonate, because I think what Pete was trying to combat was environmental pessimism. He emphasized the importance of having hope restored in some way –believing that we can make change, that we can make a difference."
"Don't give up. Don't get discouraged," he told supporters. "Don't think there's any other place in the world, across any border or ocean, that you can run to. Stay right here!"
And the response of filmgoers so far suggests she might be right.
"People sing along. We had a sold-out screening in New York, and people actually clapped during the section about the Clean Water Act and the first Earth Day."
Ironically, the Clearwater was supposed to be part of a Fourth of July Parade on the Hudson this summer, but the Coast Guard chased it away, explaining the flotilla should not be a partisan affair. The boat sailed with two banners on board reading: Save the Clean Water Act and Indigenous Rights, Racial Justice and Climate Solutions.
