Daughters

This is a VERY raw look at a program designed for fathers to get to have a dance date with their daughters while incarcerated.

There's no skimping the rough parts that are the realities that come with both the young children getting this rare opportunity and that aren't easy for them emotionally. Neither is it a field day for the men who aren't just some "hardened criminal" behind bars. They are men who truly understand what they're missing, as well as the harms from their actions, to their daughters.

It's also a moving, up close, personal experience for us to share these precious moments with them. The "roller coaster" as they stated. If you are in touch with your human side, the side that makes mistakes, or the parent that you may be, then you may be like me... crying through most parts of this documentary.

It's unlike most prison documentaries. It's one about the families on the inside and the other side of the barbed wire fence. What power those constraints hold.

Oh! And the youngest daughter and her father are two of the most beautiful people highlighted during this story.

Attended this screening last minute at the Hot Docs Film Festival and so glad I did.

This is a must watch documentary to see the father-daughter dance program at a prison in DC. Witness the unraveling emotions before, during & after the dance and how such a night was a life changing moment for inmates experiencing a glimpse of fatherhood for a moment in time. The effects of incarceration is sentimentally portrayed through families dealing with visitation limitations and the diminishing intimacy daughters have with their fathers behind bars as they progress through childhood.

This dance program being implemented in prisons across America has been proven to drastically reduce reincarnation rates of inmates and this emotional documentary shows why.

This documentary was raw and important. It was real experiences of how important a father is to their daughter. No matter what socioeconomic status, fathers have a significant influence in a daughter's life. The importance of those who were leaders within the correctional facilities that were able to identify that this kind of raw personal experience is so important, should not be shadowed. This is rehabilitation, not only within the correctional facility, but also within the community. THIS IS HOW WE HEAL.

The daughters who were brave enough to share and display their experiences to the world. This will forever be apart of their story. The hope for the daughters to allow healthy male relationships to enter their lives, and to the fathers to allow for this rehabilitation to continue to allow them to heal and to be productive citizens within their communities.

I was incredibly moved by this film. I happened upon it on a streaming service. From the beginning it was beautiful and heartbreaking. The first moment I cried is when I saw the love and anxiety and fear in the father's faces when they talked about seeing their daughters again. Holding them, connecting with them. I entirely lost it when the girls were walking down the hallway, finding their fathers one by one and seeing the tears on the men's faces.

And to be completely honest, I also feel this sense of shame and anger as a white person. WE created this problem. We put BIPOC people in this predicament over 200 years ago and kept them there. Shackling them to a way of living that is normalized in many African American communities. We white people and our fathers and their fathers before us have kept pulling black men and women down every time they try and take a step up.

We give many of these black communities a ladder to climb to higher spaces in society and say "look, we believe in equal rights and opportunity"...but then rip it out beneath them the moment they try. If every time you tried to keep climbing up the ladder to benefit yourself and those around you and society kept pushing you off, eventually it's all you know and you eventually just stop reaching. It's what their parents knew, their grandparents, their great-grandparents and all their ancestors before them.

In so many BIPOC communities, ending up in jail and prison is just a part of life. But it shouldn't be normalized. We have to correct this problem somehow. We have to fight for better education for children, free mental and physical healthcare, free access to adult education, more programs that provide lower prices and interest for new and better homes and neighborhoods, more community centers, higher education and opportunities in the prison systems, a better appreciation and celebration of their culture and diversity and to completely uproot the justice system altogether and fix it.

The system is rigged on purpose and the white community isn't doing enough to fight back. We don't do enough to support black-owned businesses. We don't lift up the BIPOC individuals that are fighting to better themselves and their communities. All of this knowledge running through my heart as I watch these fathers with their daughters, really pulled at my soul and cracked it.

We have to do more. We have to be more. Period.

Watched this at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

"Daughters" won the Audience Awards for Festival Favorite and U. S. Documentary which is well-deserved because the documentary is a great exploration of how prison is horrifying, the connections between fathers and daughters who are separated because of prison, and the challenging both sides are able to encounter.

With strong visual presentation, discussions, and insightful conversations, filmmakers Angela Patton and Natalie Rae were able to create a profound and meaningful documentary and the themes and concepts that were explored are well-executed. Each moments that were handled felt genuine and I did get emotional when watching this one.

Overall, it's one experience to witness especially for parents and families.