Daughters (2024)

I wondered where the idea for this documentary came from, and I read that review that explained it. In 2013, Angela Patton gave a TED Talk that got lot of mileage. She spoke about a program she created in Richmond, Virginia, to bring girls and their incarcerated fathers together in an environment that would make the fathers and daughters feel cherished and connected. These “Daddy Daughter Dances” have been so impactful the program has expanded to other prisons. This movie is co-directed by her and is a documentary about the first of these dances in a Washington D.C. prison. To qualify for the program, the fathers have to complete a 10-week program to strengthen their fathering skills, which means sharing some painful experiences, regrets, and fears. One man says it is the first time he has ever been in an environment where men talk about feelings. As the title indicates, Patton and co-director Natalie Rae make the girls the center of the story, with four as the focus. They all miss their fathers to varying degrees, and while the reasons they are in prison are never discussed, but the daughters are aware of the time they have left and the things that they are missing because of it. There are dozens of carefully observed and touching moments in “Daughters,” which won both the Documentary Audience Award and the Festival Favorite Award at Sundance. Watching the fathers change out of their orange prison uniforms into jackets and ties is extremely powerful. And then it becomes even more meaningful as we see some of the fathers teaching others how to tie a tie, a skill we associate with tended bonding moments between father and son, then with occasions like graduation, dates, and interviews for office jobs that these men never had. It is a movie well worth watching.