IMDb plot summary: Four young girls prepare for a special Daddy/Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers as part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C. jail.
Directed by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae.
Daughters is a documentary about a program that facilitates dances for young girls with incarcerated fathers. The prison sets up a dance event on site, fathers go through a series of parenting classes to be eligible to participate, and then the fathers and daughters spend the evening together, some of them for the very first time. The documentary follows a few specific groups of father-daughter pairings, some of whom were very close before the father was incarcerated, and others who have barely ever met each other. We do also get a brief epilogue afterwards looking at how this program has impacted the fathers and daughters a few years later. This program has very impressive results in terms of reducing recidivism, and watching these families reunite or unite for the first time makes a very strong case for how vehemently anti-family our current prison system is and how much better we could (and should) be doing. The program set up to prepare these fathers for their evenings with their daughters are fascinating to watch, as these men work through what got them in their current situation and how they can break that cycle to be a good father to their children. It feels maybe a little scummy to talk about the emotional impact of these individual characters because they're not characters, they're real people, but watching this absolutely speaks to the desperate need for prison reform if we are going to see actual rehabilitation in our society. Watching people trying to fight for these men and their return to society brings me a little bit more hope.
How it entered my Flickchart:
Daughters (2024
beat Mrs. Miniver (#1996 → #2099)
lost to My Life as a Dog (#996 → #976)
lost to Watchmen (#1495 → #1267)
beat The Suburbans (held at #1743)
lost to Spider-Man 2 (#1619 → #1617)
beat The Virtuous Sin (#1681 → #1686)
lost to Strictly Ballroom (#1650 → #1647)
lost to Martian Child (#1665 → #1645)
lost to Lord of War (#1673 → #1662)
beat The Majestic (#1677 → #1680)
beat Intolerable Cruelty (#1675 → #1677)
beat A Notorious Affair (#1674 → #1675)
📊 Ranked #1687/3996 on my Flickchart
🎯 Flickscore™: 58
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