New on Netflix: a documentary that touches the heart – Cinema News
Available on Netflix, the documentary “Daughters” focuses on an American program that allows incarcerated fathers to see their little girl again during a dance organized by the prison.
Since 2014, in the United States, many prisons have stopped offering inmates physical visits around a table. Video visits, often for a fee, have replaced them. Family contact is nevertheless necessary in the process of reintegrating prisoners. In 2008, the Date With Dad program offered prisoners the chance to reunite with their granddaughter for a dance. This initiative is at the heart of the documentary Daughters.
Directed by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae, the film – which won two awards at the Sundance Festival – follows the point of view of four little girls whose fathers are in prison for different reasons. This sensitive and moving immersion into their intimacy allows us to capture a crucial moment in the father-daughter relationship and to understand the many emotions of these very real heroines.
The documentary highlights four little girls of great resilience and faced with a violent separation. This program aims to preserve the bond between the father and his child but also to fill the feeling of absence that plays a role in individual constructions.
“Being able to touch yourself”
Daughters is the result of eight years of work. Angela Patton, one of the co-directors, chairs the association Girls For A Changean organization that allows little girls from disadvantaged backgrounds to emancipate themselves.After asking all the fathers and their daughters what they would most like to change in the system, the answer was always the same: 'Being able to touch each other'”Angela Patton explains to Filmmaker Magazine.
Three years after production began, the Date With Dad program was canceled at the Richmond Justice Center prison. After a few months of waiting, the initiative was finally reinstated. For the co-directors, a film like Daughters gives visibility to this program. In France, the system is somewhat different: the inmate can receive up to three visits per week.
Through this documentary, Angela Patton and Natalie Rae have launched a fundraiser to support the education of the four young girls followed in Daughters.Education is key to combating the effects of generational incarceration“, conclude the filmmakers.
Daughters is available on Netflix.