The Return of the Cuyahoga
Conservation
•
56m
Directed by Lawrence R. Hott and Diane Garey • Documentary • 2008 • 57 minutes
For centuries, the Cuyahoga River has been on the frontier. When the United States was a new nation, the river literally marked the western frontier. But by 1870, the river was on the industrial frontier and its banks sprouted a multitude of factories, a booming display of what was called progress. The river, as it flowed through Cleveland, became a foul-smelling channel of sludge, with an oily surface that ignited with such regularity that river fires were treated as commonplace events by the local press.
But then, in 1969, the river burned again, just as a third kind of frontier swept across the nation: an environmental frontier. And the Cuyahoga River became a landmark on this frontier too—a poster child for those trying to undo the destruction wrought by progress in America.
The Return of the Cuyahoga is about the death and rebirth of one of America's most emblematic waterways. In its history we see the end of the American frontier, the growth of industry, the scourge of pollution and the advent of a political movement that sought to end pollution.
Up Next in Conservation
-
Saving Mes Aynak
Directed by Brent E. Huffman • Documentary • 2015 • 58 minutes
SAVING MES AYNAK follows Afghan archaeologist Qadir Temori as he races against time to save a 5,000-year-old archaeological site in Afghanistan from imminent demolition. A Chinese state-owned mining company is closing in on the ancie...
-
Summer of Dolphins
Directed by Shahar Segal • Documentary • 2007 • 82 minutes
Three dolphins that have been excluded by their pod in the coral reef are set free by their trainer. Maya, who had raised them from birth, realizes that if Lemon, Shandy and Pashosh stay in the pod, they will die.
Did you know that a do...
-
This Stolen Country of Mine (w/ Ferna...
Directed by Marc Wiese • Documentary • With Paúl Jarrín Mosquera, Fernando Villavicencio • 2022 • 93 minutes
Chinese mining in Ecuador’s mountains sets the stage for an epic battle between eco-guerrillas and a corrupt government in an intensely dramatic documentary.
This Stolen Country of Mine ...
