Daughters takes us inside a unique father-daughter dance program held inside a Washington, DC, prison. The film followed four girls and their incarcerated fathers over multiple years as they prepared for a special dance, reunited at the event, and continued navigating their relationship in its aftermath.
Directed by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae, Daughters had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Filming spanned 2014 to 2020 across Washington, DC, and Virginia, where the program originally began. Through patient, intimate scenes, the directors shed light on how the US prison system impacts families and derails rehabilitation.
Daughters profiles Aubrey, Santana, Ja’Ana, and Raziah—ranging from age 5 to 15—whose fathers face lengthy sentences. The girls honestly share their ongoing struggle with separation and loss. Meanwhile, the men pour heart and soul into counseling, striving to become role models again through patience and hard work. Their reward: one precious evening bonding through dance with daughters who still believe in them despite all.
Below the surface celebration, Daughters paints a nuanced portrait—from joy and tears at reunions to resentment and heartbreak as reality sets back in. It shines a light not just on children denied loving fathers, but on the lack of care that sabotages redemption from the inside out.
Faces of Loss
This film centers around four young girls who face the daily challenges of having an incarcerated father. Aubrey was just five years old when we first met her, and her boundless energy and joy shine through, though she speaks sadly of the night police took her daddy away. Now in kindergarten, she counts down the years, hoping it’s only seven more until Keith is released.
Ten-year-old Santana seems wise beyond her years. As the oldest of three girls her mother Diamond raises mostly alone, she has felt forced to grow up fast. Behind a tough exterior, Santana struggles more than she shows, resenting the times before and angry at her father, Mark, for continuing to hurt their family.
Ja’Ana is 11, and like Santana, she sees her father Frank infrequently. Her mother, Unita, is protective and admits Frank was absent for much of Ja’Ana’s early life prior to his incarceration. Even now, basic contact is difficult as the prison system makes continued relationships a challenge.
The oldest, at 15, Raziah fights her own private battle. Without her father Alonzo’s steady support, her grades slip, and emotional pain threatens to consume her. Her mother, Sherita, worries for Raziah’s well-being, wishing desperately she had the means to help her daughter in such a trying time.
Behind bars, these men strive each day to face what brought them low and work towards becoming the fathers their little girls need. They hope the program provides the tools to prove themselves worthy of their children’s love once more. Through it all shines their deep devotion to the daughters, who give them strength to change despite the long road still ahead.
Building Bonds
For 10 weeks, the fathers meet regularly in counseling. Led by life coach Chad Morris, the sessions are part therapy, part skills class. Men bear the pains of the past, voicing regrets over shortcomings with their families. Mark admits how young he was when Santana came, still just a kid himself. Others echo facing similar struggles—children born to parents not ready.
Yet Chad pushes them to focus not on former failures but on futures still unwritten. Each man must define himself by the parent he aims to be from now on. Slowly, tentative talk strengthens to questions and cares shared between once strangers bonded by a common drive—to prove worthy of their daughters’ love once more.
As counseling continues, dance details take hold. When measuring day arrives, fathers’ excitement is plain beneath nervousness. Will their suits fit right? Look acceptable? For once, clothes serve not as gray uniforms but as hallmarks of a role too long missing—proud dad escorting his little girl.
At the same time, dance dresses capture girls’ imaginations. For Aubrey, Santana, and Ja’Ana, frills and colors sparkle like promises of a perfect night to come. Yet Raziah finds choosing harder, worry weighing on a teenage mind. Her mother, Sherita, holds hope this special day might lift Raziah from recent lows.
With dance near, anticipation runs high, though uncertainties linger. Phone calls and prison walls make this reunion all the more impactful, but also increase the stakes of a possible disconnect. Still, for daughters and fathers, the commitment shown in striving so far inspires confidence that their strengthened bond can weather whatever challenges may come. For now, all focus on the happiness within reach when girls and dads will twirl together under brightly colored lights.
Reconnecting at the Dance
As the big night arrives, excitement fills the air, but so too does nervousness. In the prison hall, fathers wait dressed in their finest suits, fiddling with cuffs or straightening collars. Down the way, daughters gather in fluffy dresses, squeezing each other’s hands for support. For all present, this dance means the world yet uncertainty remains—will memories match reality after time apart?
When the daughters appear, the room goes still. Eye contact sparks between hopeful grins; small waves exchanged. Then a shout cuts through: “Daddy!” As Santana spots her father, joy pours from her cry. In three quick steps, they collide, her arms locking tight around his waist. Scenes like this spread smiles through teary eyes, proof that bonds stretch beyond any walls.
The dance commences, yet conversations prove more poignant than any routine. Aubrey chatters a mile a minute to catch her father up while Raziah sits pensively, absorbing her dad’s words. Ja’Ana remains shy till coaxed by laughter into a twirl. As music lifts spirits, fathers watch proudly, lamenting lost moments. Still each swears to build their future, to be present now and evermore.
All too soon, the event must end. In parting gestures, fathers offer carnations—a sign of care, a seed of hope. Receiving the stem, daughters recognize its fragility yet grasp a promise within soft petals. They pledge to nourish this flower, to shelter the relationships restored this night till loves again take root and bloom outside prison confines. Farewells linger with waves and blown kisses, the bittersweet blooms clenched tight as reminders that though walls divide, heartstrings remain forever intertwined.
Beyond the Bars: Reconnection’s Reward
In the dance’s wake, feelings remain raw as euphoria dissipates. Returning to prison brings solace yet unease, their daughters’ smiles now distant. Still, one father grasps hope where before only barred visions existed. “Each hug rekindled what I fight to protect,” he voices, uniform draped yet spirit lofting. “My little girl sees her daddy cares—that’s a victory nobody can steal.”
For some, reconciliation remains turbulent. Santana questions her father with wisdom beyond years, resentment’s roots running deep. “Why’d you leave us, Daddy?” Why’d you go away?” Mark answers frankly yet gently, shouldering past mistakes as education for their future. For Ja’Ana, scars linger from absence’s ache; trust slow to reflower, though her father’s fervor shines clear.
Yet programs like this plant seeds, as coordinator Angela affirms, change beginning within. Statistics show success, with few reoffenders amongst those granted humanizing visits. Anger ebbs as accountability grows and fractures start mending, hope trickling through once-barren lands. Rehabilitation requires recognition of our shared humanity, beyond cells or sins, for no man is fully imprisoned if love can reach him still.
Bonds survive steel’s severing, as these girls demonstrate day after day. While distance damages what it cannot destroy, compassion cultivates reconciliation where before lay only desolation. In witnessing fathers dare anew to father, doubts diminish for children yearning to understand. Though structural challenges remain, programs like this restore what mass incarceration was designed to desecrate—the sacred right of a child to her parent’s embrace and knowledge that another hopes and fights and loves for her beyond prison’s enduring confines.
Reconnecting After Time Apart
Five years on since that emotional father-daughter dance, the film crews return to see how life has unfolded. Some updates lift the heart, while others weigh it down once more with reality’s difficulties. Still, through it all shines a spirit of resilience.
Little Aubrey has grown yet retained her spark, though now flickers of sadness haunt expressive eyes. Her dad Keith remains imprisoned, connection fleeting as calls prove stilted and visits scarce. For Aubrey, time crawls by in waiting, that dance a diamond memory tucked safely away yet untouched too long.
Things fair better for Santana, ten at the dance but now nearly grown. Her father, Mark, completed his sentence and works to prove himself a constant through his daughter’s teenage years. Bonds strengthen anew, though scars of the past linger on both sides.
Ja’Ana also reconnects with her father Frank after his release. Timid smiles show a bond rekindled, albeit tender shoots needing sunlight and rain alike to blossom. With effort and understanding, wounds may heal in time.
Of the four, Raziah faces the starkest change. Her father, Alonzo, earned parole yet struggles against temptation’s pull. His path proves anything but smooth sailing; love for his child is his guiding star through darkness.
This intimate peek into lives following that singular dance shows rehabilitation’s complexity—two steps forward parried by one step back. But through children’s eyes beams hope that with compassion, commitment, and a little luck, even the deepest divisions may one day close. In families, as in life, time often works its magic given half a chance. A dance’s aftermath teaches that lesson well.
Bonding Behind Bars
This film takes us on a poignant journey, shedding light on an issue that often stays hidden. By focusing on the girls left behind, it shows the true cost of a flawed system. While circumstances led the fathers to prison, their value isn’t defined by crimes alone.
Through intimate portraits, we see caring men striving to right past wrongs. The dance gives hope that rehabilitation is possible if families can heal together rather than apart. But will society let these bonds flourish post-release? Or will a system seeking retribution sever the very connections that could curb recidivism?
By humanizing all involved, Daughters challenges preconceptions. It leaves us rooting not only for the girls’ happiness but also for the fathers’ success. Even in a place of punishment, acts of compassion remind us that every person deserves redemption’s chance, especially in relationships with those who love them most. Ultimately, it presents a vision where care for the community prevails over cruelty’s ineffective ways. May its message of restoring, not destroying, resonant long after the final frame.
The Review
Daughters
Daughters is an impactful film that sheds light on the far-reaching effects of mass incarceration with empathy and care. Through grounded intimacy, it puts faces to statistics and challenges views of prisoners as irredeemable. While not without flaws, the documentary achieves its goal of sparking reflection on broken systems and forgotten lives. It leaves one hoping its message may help strengthen family ties too often severed.
PROS
- Humanizes the experiences of both prisoners and their families
- Highlights the lack of rehabilitation support and compassion in the prison system
- Utilizes intimate, vérité-style portrayals to generate empathy
- Shows commitment to following subjects over multiple years
- Encourages reflection on how mass incarceration impacts communities.
CONS
- Structure loses momentum in the latter half.
- Does not provide enough context about the prisoners' crimes.
- Overrelies on repetitive voiceover and girl portraits at times.
- Edits between subjects could be tighter.
- Score is overbearing in spots
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