Synopsis for the Film

Cleveland, city of light, city of magic
Cleveland, city of light, you’re calling me
Cleveland, even now I can remember
’cause the cuyahoga river
Goes smokin’ through my dreams
      - Lyrics from ‘Burn On’ By Randy Newman (Sail Away, 1972)

This is the river where it all began. Cuyahoga- ‘The Crooked River’, as the Native Americans called it. Later it became the demarcation for the ‘western frontier’. Later still- the original ‘River of Fire’. A river turned to oily sludge by the industrial revolution that sprung up on its banks in the quest for progress and money that could best be described as the spirit of the times. It was that very spirit that swept away the random conflagrations and other disasters from public consciousness until the ‘fire of 1969’. The spirit of the times, it seems, had changed. The river turned into the poster child of a new movement called ‘environmental activism’. ‘The Return to Cuyahoga’ is the triumphant and stirring tale of the great crooked river’s resurrection from toxic dump to old blue glory. It is the legend for the spirit of our times.

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