Dreamcatcher takes us into a hidden world through the eyes of one of its survivors: Brenda Myers-Powell. A former teenage prostitute who worked the streets of Chicago, Brenda defied the odds to become a powerful advocate for change in her community.
COMPLETED
Filmmakers: Kim Longinotto
Year: 2015
Runtime: 104 mins
Country: UK
Format: HD
UK release: 6 March 2015
Sight & Sound - Film of the Month: 'Incredible and urgent'
Variety - 'Intensely moving...a real-world version of movie-star magnetism'
FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
Sundance Film Festival 2015
Rotterdam 2015
Hot Docs 2015
Syndey Film Festival 2015
Moscow IFF 2015
STORY
For twenty-five years Brenda Myers-Powell called herself 'Breezy' and she dominated her world, or that's what she thought. It was a world that had turned her into a teenage, drug-addicted prostitute. After a violent encounter with a 'john,' Brenda woke up in the hospital and decided to change her life. Today she is a beacon of hope and a pillar of strength for hundreds of women and girls as young as fourteen who want to change their own lives. 'Dreamcatcher' explores the cycle of neglect, violence and exploitation which each year leaves thousands upon thousands of girls and women feeling that prostitution is their only option to survive. By following the very charming, charismatic and truly empathic Brenda, we enter the lives of young women and see in verite footage their realities from their points of view. While the world may overlook these women and men, thankfully Brenda has not, providing an unflinching expose which contrasts seeming hopelessness against the difference that one person can make in the lives of many.
FILMMAKER
Kim Longinotto is a British documentary film maker, well known for making films about extraordinary women and also the plight of female victims of oppression or discrimination. Longinotto studied camera and directing at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England, where she now tutors occasionally. At the age of 10 she was sent to a draconian all-girls boarding school, where she found it hard to make friends due to the mistress forbidding anyone to talk to her for a term after she became lost during a school trip. After a period of homelessness Longinotto went on to Essex University to study English and European literature and later followed friend and future filmmaker Nick Broomfield to the National Film and Television School. While studying, she made a documentary about her boarding school that was shown at the London Film Festival, and has continued to be a prolific observational documentary film maker ever since. She has received a number of awards for her films over the years, including a BAFTA for her Divorce Iranian Style.
CREDITS
Director: Kim Longinotto
Music: Stuart Earl
Sound: Nina Rice
Producers: Teddy Leifer and Lisa Stevens
Associate Producers: Will Spears and John Stack
Editor: Ollie Huddleston