Movie Review ~ Daughters

The timeless sentimentality of a father-daughter dance is a motif that’s popped up in everything from classic sitcoms to iconic music videos.  The dance floor, where a dad can be a child’s first role model, almost becomes a 12×12 metaphor for life and all its awkward steps, spontaneous twists, and moments of pure connection.  What happens when that dance takes place inside the walls of a prison and years of raw emotion, not walls, stand between an incarcerated parent and their young child?  How do you find a way to keep spinning when the familiar music has faded and is replaced with a steely silence meant to rob you of humanity?

Daughters, a documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, shows how one program has redefined the daddy-daughter dance and elevated it to a heartstring-tugging exploration of love, healing, and the resilience of the human spirit.  Winning the Audience Award and Festival Favorite Award at the festival, Natalie Rae and Angela Patton’s film is the kind that stays with you, not because it is beautifully shot or perfectly edited – though it is both – but because it strips away the preachy/peachy gloss of sentimentality in favor of finding complex authenticity in its subjects.

Produced over eight years, Daughters follows four young girls—Aubrey, Santana, Raziah, and Ja’Ana—as they prepare for a daddy-daughter dance with their fathers, incarcerated in a Washington, D.C. jail.  Through the girls navigating challenging relationships with their fathers, we glimpse their hopes, dreams, and crushing despair over the separation.  At the same time, the film follows their fathers as they complete a 10-week course preparing them not only for their brief reunion with their children but also for a remarkably vulnerable discussion on how prisons have affected their ability to parent effectively.   After the dance, we see what happens to the promises that are made.

I’ve seen the film three times now, being lucky enough to be at that World Premiere in Sundance, and its emotional impact is immense.  I think that’s because it taps into something so fundamentally relatable in all of us: the need for connection and the capacity for forgiveness.  While the documentary doesn’t skate around the realities of the criminal justice system, it doesn’t let it take center stage either.  The crimes that put these men in jail are not discussed, ensuring a fair and balanced portrayal that removes any ounce of bias we may level toward them, however unintentional.  Instead, there’s a determined drive to emphasize that just because a parent goes to prison or becomes unavailable in their child’s life doesn’t mean their bond or responsibility also takes a pause. 

Pairing nicely with another recent release, A24’s glorious Sing Sing (which, mark my words, is your dark horse contender for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor) in its curiosity for presenting the often-overlooked narrative of prison reform, Daughters comes through as a ray of light for the power of compassion and the potential for healing even the deepest of wounds.  It’s impossible to see the film and not reflect on how our penal system impacts those behind bars and their families.  You should brace yourselves for an emotional rollercoaster – I have yet to make it through the film without an ugly cry moment or two (or three).

I’m crossing my fingers this amazing work can go the distance and find its way to an Oscar nomination.  I would love to see co-director Patton on the campaign trail for this.  As the program’s founder that serves as the basis for this documentary, I’ve been lucky enough to be in the same room with her and witnessed firsthand her passion for the program and the young women it lifts up.  This is a film made with commitment and pride, a must-watch piece of filmmaking that belongs in every conversation as one of the year’s best films.  It’s a masterclass in empathy, a celebration of strength, and a call to action.