The adage “when you serve time, your family serves it with you” is one of the realest statements ever made about the consequences of getting locked up. It becomes more stark upon learning approximately 47% of state-incarcerated persons are parents of minor children, according to data from the Prison Policy Initiative. But there’s more to the saying and data because they represent someone’s reality, and Natalie Rae and Angela Patton’s Daughters brings that reality to the forefront.
Daughters follows four young girls as they prepare to reunite with their incarcerated fathers through a daddy-daughter dance held in a Washington DC jail by Patton’s Girls For a Change organization. However, the pomp and circumstance of getting dressed for such an occasion is just a tiny part of what Daughters offers. Rae and Patton’s storytelling walks you through all pieces of the family aspect of incarceration and a smart, affecting discourse you will never forget.
The dance and impending reunion are the proverbial carrots that pique your interest, but the panoramic approach taken to get you there makes Daughters unique. The film presents three distinct perspectives that overlap throughout the 107-minute runtime– the girls’ lives, the incarcerated men’s lives, and the system.
When Daughters focuses on the young ladies’ lives, it explores the day-to-day experiences of the titular subjects. Through that lens, you witness how the girls, who range in age from 5 to 15, cope in a world where they either miss the presence of their father, develop a sense of betrayal about his absence, or are simply too young to grasp why he’s not around. From a viewer’s standpoint, there are times when their resilience moves you, but others where your heart breaks as they bear with the residuals of choices they never made.
In its exploration of incarcerated men, Daughters focuses on said men solely through the scope of the 10-week program they must complete to attend the dance. There’s minimal, if any, mention of the crimes the men committed to land in jail, which keeps the film centered on these men as fathers working to see their children. The scenes of the men in the program’s sessions as they work through the traumas and mistakes they made are just as poignant as the look at the film’s younger subjects.
The discussion of systemic barriers that reinforce the separation of children from their incarcerated parents is not as pronounced as the daughters or the fathers in Daughters. Still, it’s a pivotal point in the film. Rae and Patton do an excellent job of showing how difficult it is for families to communicate with their incarcerated loved ones despite the means made available to do so by the prison or correctional facility.
When you finally reach the dance, it’s time to pause and re-up on Kleenex or whatever brand of tissue you prefer. The second the first daughter reaches the door to see her father, all the allergies will draw tears from even the staunchest punishment advocate’s eyes. An unspeakable magic occurs at that moment, and Rae and Patton capture it and similar moments from the event beautifully. You won’t be able to think of a name for it, but you’ll undoubtedly feel it.
While other documentaries involving incarceration tend to set their sights squarely on the prison population itself, Daughters beautifully bucks the trend by showing people on the inside still play a vital role in contributing to society. It takes the plight of the incarcerated and their families and breaks it down to a universal truth that applies to everyone regardless of economic, social, or legal status – all children need their father. Needless to say, Daughters is an absolute must-see and easily the most important documentary you’ll see this year.
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