Dreamcatcher

British documentary filmmaker Kim Longinotto travels to Chicago to present a disturbing portrait of prostitutes attempting to leave their dangerous trade. At the center of this story is Brenda Myers-Powell, a one-time teenage prostitute with a devastating drug habit who managed to turn her life around and co-found the nonprofit Dreamcatcher Foundation, which aims to help women and girls escape from the sex trade. Myers-Powell is an extraordinary energetic force, cruising the streets at night and speaking at schools and prisons in the day to locate and counsel those in need of her distinctive assistance. “If you know somebody got your back, you'll make it,” she informs sex workers, who nevertheless doubt her ability to bring about life changes that border on the miraculous. Dreamcatcher presents interviews with several women Myers-Powell has helped, including a 15-year-old who had been a prostitute for three years. Myers-Powell is a colorful and highly photogenic character who wears theatrically grand wigs and false eyelashes; she's also deadly serious in her one-woman mission to positively impact as many lives as possible. Longinotto won the Directing Award for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance for this effective, often harrowing film. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)