Daughters

The Date With Dad program sponsors dances for young Black girls and their fathers—including incarcerated ones. Daughters looks at one such event, a dance that reunites four girls with the dads they love in a prison setting that, for one night, feels a bit like home. The film, directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton, moves carefully through the beats of preparing for, enjoying, and coming down from the event, with special attention paid to the ways in which facilitators prepare and emotionally connect with all the stakeholders in the event, including mothers stretched thin while doing the work of two parents at once. Mass incarceration isn’t merely a political problem: for the young women growing up at the center of the frame, it’s a personal one, as they yearn to connect with fathers they cannot reach. With unflinching vision and an aching heart, Daughters gives viewers that connection, even while making clear that one special event can’t take the place of an entire childhood with one’s father. For its empathetic curiosity about the inner lives of young women as they come to understand the challenges of living in America, Daughters wins a Peabody Award.