Director Kim Longinotto has won many awards for her observational documentaries, Gaea Girls and Divorce Iranian Style to name a few.
Her latest film has just won at Sundance (Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary) and finds Longinotto in Chicago with the irrepressibly brassy Brenda Myers-Powell, a former sex worker turned guardian (dreamcatcher) angel, who is a beacon for hope and a pillar of strength for hundreds of women and girls as young as fourteen aiming to change their lives.
The camera sticks to Brenda as she steadfastly goes about her work, whether it is giving out free condoms in a night-time drive by to local streetwalkers or getting young schoolgirls to open up about their personal stories of abuse.
As with Longinotto, Brenda is a gifted listener and the camera never flinches from stories of exploitation as well as the unconditional love that comes in abundance.
