Myers-Powell understands the psychology of human trafficking, and her advice is admirably sober, clear-eyed, and devoid of sentiment.

| Sep 10, 2015

Despite the harrowing stories that fill the film from start to finish, "Dreamcatcher" is not hopeless. How could it be hopeless when there are people like Myers-Powell in the world?

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 27, 2015

These stories are hard to hear, but Myers-Powell demonstrates that bearing witness and testifying are key to recovery and healing, as are unconditional love and a belief that no one is past redemption.

| Mar 19, 2015

Like its subject, this documentary is powerful, honest, and empowering. Bravo.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 8, 2015

We are reminded of unhappy truths about capitalism and the US way of justice. But we also get to savour that nation's perennially stirring belief in reinvention.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 6, 2015

Despite the hard-hitting nature of the material, Longinotto never sensationalises or sentimentalises her subject and so delivers a galvanising portrait of female heroism and endurance that's clear, dignified and marked by a touching empathy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 5, 2015

From street to cell, this is a precise, thoroughgoing indictment of the systemic sexism, racism and classism that creates a climate of endemic sex work, and it combines this with bold and revelatory strategies for making change.

| Mar 5, 2015

An exemplary piece of verit film-making.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 5, 2015

Director Kim Longinotto somehow inveigles her camera into the lives of prostitutes, abused teenagers and drug addicts on the streets of Chicago, and elicits confessions and revelations that leave you gasping.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 5, 2015

It's grim, unfussy and deeply moving.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 5, 2015

Longinotto and editor Ollie Huddleston stitch it, with lightness and dexterity, into a wholly edifying, often stirring tapestry of survivors' stories.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 5, 2015

A sensitive, sincere and humbling profile which is truly inspirational.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 5, 2015

Longinotto's rare skill is in that she makes advocacy documentaries by stealth, espousing the work of certain people and groups without ever having to explicitly state the fact.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 5, 2015

Brenda Myers-Powell is a star: she'll have you by the heart in the first minutes of this documentary.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 3, 2015

By the end of Kim Longinotto's harrowing "Dreamcatcher," I could barely catch my breath.

| Jan 30, 2015

A real-world heroine comes to light in Kim Longinotto's intensely moving study of Chicago prostitutes going straight.

| Jan 28, 2015