Daughters: Netflix’s powerful, provocative prison programme documentary

Thursday, 15 August 2024

Daughters (M, 107mins) Directed by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae ****½

Like Garrett Bradley’s Academy Award-nominated 2020 documentary Time, this takes viewers on a heartrending journey inside the American prison system.

A hit at January’s Sundance Film Festival, where it took out both the Audience Award in the documentary competition and was named as the Festival Favourite, Natalie Rae’s tale chronicles the efforts of Girls For a Change CEO Angela Patton and her Date with Dad programme.

Sparked by a 2012 TedWomen talk Rae saw Patton give about the initiative, this follows four father-daughter pairings over the course of eight years.

While the concept started in Richmond, Virginia, this focuses on its expansion to Washington D.C.

“My Dad is the third-strongest Dad I know,” 5-year-old Aubrey beams, before adding that “I’m the smartest in my class”. Her father Keith, described as a 30-year-old rapper, still has seven years to serve on his sentence. “Seven’s a very close number to one,” Aubrey says.

It is getting more and more difficult for her to see him, however. In-person “touch” visits are increasingly prohibited and the cost of video calls is a drain on finances a struggling solo parent can’t regularly absorb.

With Aubrey’s upbeat persona threatened by crippling separation anxiety, Keith, who admits he grew up in a rough environment and confesses to having made some bad decisions, commits to the 10-week counselling programme with life coach Chad Morris that offers him a “golden opportunity” to properly bond with his girl – albeit for only one day.

But while she is excited at the prospect of spending time with her Pa, 10-year-old Santana, 11-year-old Ja’Ana and 15-year-old Raziah are more wary of reconnecting with incarcerated fathers (Mark, Frank and Alonso respectively) whose actions and, in some cases, absenteeism while still free, means their relationships are already strained to – if not beyond – breaking point.

We’re never told what crimes the men committed, which may grate with some who watch this, but on reflection, it’s unnecessary to this story. Their biggest sin is robbing their child of a father figure who is constant in their lives – and that’s what is trying to be rectified – in at least a small way – by the programme.

After an initial, mood-setting black-and-white montage of dads and daughters, Rae does a fabulous job of intercutting between the home lives of the young quartet and the men’s cells (some of the match shots/juxtapositions are artful, clever and telling) and sessions where they open up about their hopes and regrets and learn how to be creative, try something new and be impactful on the daughters’ lives, but only on their girls’ terms.

Naturally, there’s trepidation, doubt and concern on all sides (including from mothers Unita, LaShawn, Diamond and Sherita, who Patton gathers together to remind them that “as the ones showing up every day … you are absolutely amazing – and someone needed to tell you that”) before the “big day” of a combined lunch, craft-session and chance to bust-a-move, or simply hug-tightly, arrives.

By often shooting from the girls’ point-of-view, or focusing the camera on them, Rae allows you to really feel immersed in the occasion – and its emotion. Yes, there will be tears before bedtime (for those onscreen and those watching), both happy and sad, while a couple of subsequent codas allow us an insight as to how much of an impact it actually had on individuals in both groups. “Regardless of where you go, what you do in here, today is testament to the fact your babies need you,” Patton tells the men in the immediate aftermath of the event, a belief that may – or may not – prove portentous.

Proof that every parent-child situation and relationship is individual and complex, regardless of whether incarceration is involved or not, there are no easy solutions to a rift and the American prison system is deeply flawed, Daughters is a provocative, powerful documentary.

Daughters is now available to stream on Netflix.