'Daughters' is one of the best documentaries of the year

Netflix film looks at fathers and daughters separated by prison.

In the documentary ‘Daughters,” a group of incarcerated men in the Washington, D.C. area are given what is perhaps their most desired gift. It also turns out to be their harshest punishment.

The men are all Black fathers, separated from their daughters. Some have tried to maintain relationships through phone calls and visits through Plexiglas. Others have lost contact.

In the film by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton, now on Netflix, the fathers are given the chance to spend a few hours with their daughters, in person, at a daddy-daughter dance. The event is both joyful and wrenching, and forces many of the men to face how their incarceration has sent ripples of trauma throughout their families. No wonder, as a title card says at the end of the film, 95 percent of the prisoners who go through the program never return to prison.

Rae and Patton follow several father-daughter pairs in the months leading up to the dance. Mark fantasizes about being a “superhero” to his daughter Santana, who he hasn’t seen since she was a baby. Santana is now 10 but looks older, harder, having built emotional armor to protect herself. 

(Photos courtesy of Netflix)

Aubrey is an adorable five-year-old who can’t wait to see her father, Keith, despite the fact that she doesn’t recognize him among the other men. The scenes of the prisoners preparing themselves emotionally for the dance are filmed in stark institutional light (perhaps by necessity), while the scenes of the daughters pop with rich colors and textures. While the film extends empathy to the fathers, its heart seems to really lie with the daughters, forced to grow up under unimaginable circumstances.

The dance takes up much of the second half of “Daughters,” running the full gamut of emotions from joyful grins to anguished tears. The fathers are dressed up in suits, the daughters in pretty dresses. At the end of the dance, the fathers give their daughters a corsage and, more importantly, a promise to stay in their lives. 

Will they keep those promises to their daughters? Some fathers do, some fathers don’t, some fathers can’t. After the dance, Keith is shuffled around prisons between three states, barely getting the chance for more than short phone calls with his daughter. When we last see her, she is now eight years old. The excited little girl she was at the dance is gone, and she is building her own armor. It’s heart-wrenching.

Like the drama “Sing Sing,” “Daughters” shows the humanity of people behind bars, and questions a prison system that tries to extinguish that humanity in the name of justice. And causes collateral damage to innocent families left behind.

“Daughters” is now on Netflix.