Dreamcatcher: Surviving Chicago's Streets
Award-winning British filmmaker Kim Longinotto answers questions about her film . Kim also directed which featured in Storyville 2014-2015 season.
What made you first want to explore the subject?
I’m attracted to films about change and survival. Brenda’s story is inspiring - she was a prostitute for 25 years, from the age of about 13 and she was mis-treated all her childhood.
She has now blossomed into a dynamic, charismatic woman who rescues others from the streets. That seemed like a great story for a film
How long did it take to get the film off the ground?
It took about nine months from the start. I broke a foot in the middle which held us up for six weeks.
Teddy Leifer from Rise Films went to the USA to raise the money. He’s a total whizz.
What were you most surprised to learn in the course of production?
I’m always deeply shaken by how the situations we film chime with me and my own life. In Dreamcatcher, I kept having moments of revelation. It was exciting and threatening at the same time
What was the most difficult part of the story to tell?
It was all quite tough but also very pleasurable. It was a joy to be able to share the daily lives of Brenda and the girls she met
What have been the differences in reception to the film in countries it has now travelled to?
People seem to have enjoyed the film and relate to it very strongly. I’ve had two bad reactions that I keep remembering. A group of women at Hackney Picture House objected to us filming Homer, who used to be a pimp. They were also angry that the film doesn’t condemn him. Recently, in Vienna, a man was upset because we hadn’t included any history of African Americans in the film. He felt strongly that we should have talked about black people’s experience of slavery
Did you have a social media strategy?
There are people in the USA organizing this. Brenda has been travelling with the film there for the past 4 months. I’d love the film to be shown in schools and colleges. The film is distributed here in the UK by Dogwoof. But TV is brilliant because so many people get to watch
Has there been a positive response on social media to the film?
There have been loads of great reviews online and in newspapers.
Any updates on contributors since filming finished?
The girls all went to the Chicago opening. Two of the girls came to Sundance. Brenda is there for them all.
Best recent read?
Beryl Bainbridge's A Quiet Life, I’m half way through Robert Harris's The Dictator which is a hoot
Also William Boyd's A Good Man in Africa was fun but chilling. I’d just read his other novel Restless which I thought was wonderful
Best recent film?
I’ve just been to see Wild Tales, an Argentinian film. It’s extraordinary and completely gripping
Last night I watched - the episode about the child kidnapping - it was astonishingly
good. Totally brilliant. My favorite character is Ida, the Polish detective, she grows and grows. Eagerly waiting for Saga’s reprise in and also more .
