Daughters
Daughters
A TEDXWomen Talk by Angela Patton in September 2013 became all the rage for the speech that she delivered encouraging love packed luncheons between daughters and their jailed fathers. This includes a petition she initiated in 2005 under her Patrick Patton Foundation in Richmond, Virginia that encouraged all attending to feel welcomed and loved. The strong success of these ‘Daughter Daddy Dances’ has made the program gain further expansion to various prisons.
‘Daughters’ is another documentary co-produced by Patton about the inaugural dance event conducted in a DC prison. In the film, she narrates that when she wrote to the person who was to pitch it, he replied that there was such an occasion, to which she said ‘yes,’ and that was first for ‘someone to come asking for such a moment.’
For the fathers to gain admission into the scheme, they must first go through a package that runs for 10 weeks with the aim of improving their skills as fathers; some things are painful and filled with heartbreaks and fears. One of the participants says in his own words this that it only took for him to realise what he had said or done to be spoken to by men for the first time ever and that there was so much talk about feelings.
There are four girls who get to the papas over the course of 120 days, which is fruitful, as the subtitle shows, and as directed by Patton and Natalie Rae, will focus on the girls. Now we have an adorable five-year-old girl named Aubrey when we first see her.
Strong female figures, ubiquitous in contemporary literature, have particular significance to Shela, especially given that she is the only child in her family. Also, she feels proud because she is the brightest student in her class. She has a wall where she displays her certificates of achievements. She is intrigued by mathematics and has already committed the multiplication tables into memory.
She explains to us the meaning of the numbers she flash cards. It comes across that one of the things that makes these numbers significant for her is that her father has been in prison for seven years and she wonders how long it is going to take him to get out, since she has never lived without him.
When their fathers are not present for them, it causes even more distress and anguish as they grow older and learn that it was the consequence of poor life choices. For example, 10-year-old Santana is more aware of her father’s circumstances and, having two younger siblings, states that she is the ‘dad’ of her family, “becasue I have younger siblings.”
She bluntly states that she may decide to marry in the future, never percentitig to bare any children. “I can’t even visualize what my father’s glare was like. Nothing about him comes to my mind,” says Ja’Ana, a depressed 11-year-old. 15-year-old Raziah has a different story, full of bitterness, pain, and rage even, which brings her thoughts about suicide.
All the events which occurred previously tell more about one of the men from the group, who said he started sleeping with the mother of his daughter when she was thirteen. This lady was fourteen years old when she birthed his child. He understands that if the father were there for the child instead of being behind bars, she would not have craved his allurement that much.
The cinematography by Michael Fernandez and the soft sounds of Kelsey Lu create a gentleness in the film and the pure nature of the girls. Here and there, slight slow-motion effects portray the endless thoughts of very young children, their long days with hardly any action.
One is deeply touched by the strong sentiments that emerge in numerous programs run by Patton for the nurturing and empowerment of Black girls and their mothers. The mothers have given so much that Patton wants them to take pride in their contribution and kinship with each other. It means that in enabling the girls to have relationships with their fathers, she’s also facilitating the mothers. “When our families are undisturbed, our societies will flourish”.
There are many heartfelt, even heartbreaking, observances that emerge in “Daughters,” which snagged the Documentary Audience Award and Festival Favorite Award at Sundance, including the poignant images of fathers who have just changed out of their orange prison uniforms into jackets and ties.
It also becomes completely heartbreaking to see the boys’ fathers witnessed other fathers teaching each other how to tie a necktie, or what should be a treasured bonding experience between fathers and sons and later for special occasions like graduations, dates, and job interviews which most of these men never experienced. Then, when it comes to sad goodbyes, it is heartwarming because each man, with a true dedication to his daughter, hands over the flowers to her.
What is of importance here is that, as a character notes in the book “American Fiction,” “Nobody is as bad as on their worst day.” They love their daughters. Not being able to be a part of them only exacerbates their despairing situation. More importantly, the daughters also need them to be there in their lives. Just like the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program that was brought out in “Sing Sing,” the rate of recidivism among fathers practice some of the fatherhood programs is about three percent.
At the end in an update, one of the fathers says I have never been out of prison for for more than six months since I was a teenager. But then as a teenager, I never understood why it was essential for a man to be there for his daughter. Now he has been there for four years and plans to stay out of the prison for ever as he wants the best for her daughter.
Many prisons have done away with physical visits and instead provided video calls which is also costly for the families. Father and daughters feel relief from the endless stress and sadness as they come face to face the very first time in years. One of the fathers declares: “For that six hours, there was no prison for me.”
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- Genre: Documentary
- Country: United States
- Director: Angela Patton, Natalie Rae
- Cast: Chad Morris, Angela Patton, Aubrey Smith
