Dreamcatcher
Directed by Kim Longinotto
Starring Brenda Myers-Powell
Longinotto's documentary is about Brenda Myers-Powell, who fights against sexual exploitation and supports prostitutes in Chicago. Brenda knows what she is talking about: her own story, involving teenage prostitution and a life of violence and abuse, is in stark contrast to her dauntless energy and optimism.
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Reviews
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★★★★ review by Jak-Luke Sharp on Letterboxd
SoFT Cinema
1.85:1
Color
Digital
15BONUS: Q&A session with Director KIM LONGINOTTO
A harrowing true tale of the life of prostitution on the streets of Chicago. Made with great care regarding its rather dark subject matter, the interviewees and vitims of these unspeakable and terrifying crimes are some of the bravest people put on film. Honest and truthful doesn't even begin to describe these women captured on film. It has very little closure regarding the issue at hand due to the women desperate to survive but does bring a real sense of change with the people helping out one step at a time.
78
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★★★★ review by Brian Tallerico on Letterboxd
"You ain't been on the planet long enough to have to deal with all of that."
No one has. A beautiful, harrowing tale of a true hero.
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★★★★ review by Billy Langsworthy on Letterboxd
Very tough but ultimately hopeful, Dreamcatcher is powerful, moving stuff.
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★★★★ review by Calum Russell on Letterboxd
A film of despair, loss and poverty but moreso of hope, strength and the power of the individual.
Surrounding the issue of prostitution in contemporary chigago, the film explores the pasts of young victims and aims to repair their futures in the form of 'dreamcatcher' leader- Brenda.
A truly touching film.
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★★★★½ review by Jussi Hulkkonen on Letterboxd
Longinotto's empathetic direction and editor Oliver Huddleston's carefully selective editing bring an understated precision to the film's observational portrait of Brenda Myers-Powell's fearless, unfailingly compassionate dedication to the women living on the fringes of contemporary American society that manages to hit hard with its trenchant social message without overwhelming the film with bleakness and didactically vitriolic politicizing, allowing Myers-Powell to serve as our guide to this world. Longinotto channels Myers-Powell's beautifully optimistic, resilient humanity in the film's portraits of those Myers-Powell helps, allowing these individuals to tell their own stories and, like Myers-Powell, never showing any sign of condecision, shock, or judgement. These individual stories open a wider perspective on the breadth of the damage done by a society that neglects those it sees no economic value in.
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