Alonzo Lewis, Angela Patton, Chad Morris, Clinique Marshall Chapman, Daughters, Diamond Stewart, documentaries, film festivals, Frank Walker, Ja'Ana Crudup, Keith Swepston, Lashawn Smith, movies, Natalie Rae, reviews, Santana Stewart, Sherita Lewis, Sundance, Sundance Film Festival, Unita Crudup
August 9, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae
Culture Representation: Filmed from 2019 to 2022, and taking place in the area of Washington, D.C., the documentary film “Daughters” features a predominantly African American group of people (with a few Latin people) who are involved in some way with Girls for a Change, a Richmond, Virginia-based non-profit group that empowers African American girls and other girls of color.
Culture Clash: Girls for Change began a Date With Dad event for incarcerated fathers and their underage daughters to spend time together during a father-daughter dance at the prisons where their fathers are incarcerated.
Culture Audience: “Daughters” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in documentaries that show the vulnerabilities and challenges of families who are affected by incarceration.
“Daughters” is quite simply one of the most impactful documentaries of the year. This tearjerking account of a father-daughter dance in a prison tells a larger story of the long-term effects of separation from incarcerated parents. “Daughters” does not ask viewers to pity these fractured families but to take an honest and often-uncomfortable look at the circumstances that led to these traumas.
Directed by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae (their feature-film directorial debut), “Daughters” had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won two prizes: the Festival Favorite Award and the Audience Award: U.S. Documentary. Patton (who is prominently featured in the documentary) is also the founder of Girls for Change, a Richmond, Virginia-based non-profit group that empowers African American girls and other girls of color.
Girls for Change offers Date With Dad, a weekend event (which includes a formal dance) where underage daughters are reunited with their fathers who are incarcerated in prison. “Daughters” does not mention the crimes for which the fathers are incarcerated, which is the movie’s way of not letting these fathers’ identities be defined by their crimes. The fathers who participate in the Date With Dad event have to go through a 10-week orientation program first. According to Girls for Change, about 93% of the fathers who are paroled after participating in the Date With Dad event do not go back to prison.
The Date With Dad event was the idea of a girl in the Girls for Change program in 2008. The first Date With Dad event happened in 2009. “Daughters” (which was filmed from 2019 to 2022) chronicles what happened before, during and after a 2019 Date With Dad event at an unnamed prison in Washington, D.C., where prisoners have to pay for the privilege of seeing visitors, who can only be seen on video without any touching. The Date With Dad event is an exception to the “visitors on video” rule.
“Daughters” focuses on four girls and their fathers who go through this experience:
- Aubrey Smith (who was 5 years old in 2019) and her father Keith Swepston
- Ja’Ana Crudup (who was 11 years old in 2019) and her father Frank Walker
- Santana Stewart (who was 10 years old in 2019) and her father Mark Grimes
- Razia Lewis (who was 15 years old in 2019) and her Alonzo Lewis
For some of these daughters, the dance will be the first time that they will get to touch their father in years. In addition to interviews with the fathers and daughters, the documentary has interviews with the girls’ mothers, most of whom are single mothers. They all express a range of emotions: bitterness, hope, fear and bravery.
Aubrey Smith and her mother Lashawn Smith are feeling the weight of finding out if Swepston’s 10-year prison sentence will be reduced. Aubrey, who is clearly the star of the movie, is a precocious and intelligent child who is absolutely adorable. She excels in school and craves her father’s approval. “My dad is the strongest dad I know,” Aubrey says proudly in the beginning of the documentary. Lashawn, who says that Aubrey has “separation anxiety” because of Swepston’s incarceration, also mentions that Aubrey experienced the trauma of seeing Swepston being arrested when police raided their home at night.
Ja’Ana Crudup and her mother Unita Crudup have different feelings about Ja’Ana’s father, who is no longer in a relationship with Unita. Ja’Ana is looking forward to seeing her father, but admits, “My mom don’t like me going to jail to see my father.” Unita bitterly says that when Ja’Ana’s father was not in prison, he didn’t want to spend time with Ja’Ana. And now that it’s harder for him to spend time with Ja’Ana, he wants to develop a bond with her. Unita questions his sincerity and says she doesn’t want Ja’Ana to be disappointed by him again: “When you hurt her, you hurt me.”
Santana Stewart and her mother Diamond Stewart have the opposite situation: Santana’s father and Diamond have a cordial relationship, but Santana is the one who’s angry at her father. Diamond and Grimes were underage teenagers (he was 16, she was 14) when they had Santana. This teenage parenthood and the hardships the family experienced have had a profound impact on Santana, who says defiantly in the documentary: “I’m never going to be a mother. I can have a husband. I’m getting married at 35. If I do have kids, I’ll wait until I’m 45.”
Razia Lewis has a heart-wrenching story of how she’s been affected by her father’s imprisonment. She admits that not having her father around has made her depressed enough to have frequent suicidal thoughts. She says of her father’s absence: “It don’t feel right.” Razia’s mother Sherita Lewis does what she can to cheer up Razia, but the aching void that Razia feels in her heart can’t seem to be filled until she gets a chance to spend quality time with her father.
Patton is seen as a guest speaker during the fathers’ Date With Dad orientation program, which is led by Chad Morris. Morris gives a combination of pep talks and “tough love” lectures on what the men can and should learn from this Date With Dad experience. He warns the fathers that it will be very hard to say goodbye to their daughters after the event ends, but that they should use that sadness as fuel to become better men and make their children proud.
Patton explains the purpose of the Date With Dad event: “The girls needed a way to invite their fathers into their lives on their own terms.” The father-dance is held in a prison gymnasium that is set up with ballroom-styled seating. Many of the fathers have to learn how to put on a tie to go to this event. Also featured in the documentary is Clinique Marshall Chapman, a program manager for this prison in Washington, D.C.
Much of “Daughters” shows the planning and anticipation that go into the event. But nothing can really prepare viewers for the flood of emotions that will come when seeing these fathers and daughters spending time together and then having to go their separate ways again. Regret, emotional pain, tension, joy and sorrow are in abundance.
Most other documentaries that would cover this subject matter would end the documentary at the end of the dance. But “Daughters” admirably goes a step further by showing the long-term effects of the dance. And this is how “Daughters” packs an even bigger punch.
One daughter has reunited with her father, who has been paroled and turned his life around. This father and daughter now have an intact family that is on the path to healing. Another daughter doesn’t get this happy ending and hasn’t seen her father in person since the dance. The exuberant spirit she had when she was younger has turned into glumness and resentment.
The Date With Dad event represents mixed emotions that not only evoke powerful memories but also haunt those who participate in it. For some, the event is a step in the right direction and motivation to make things right if the father gets a chance to redeem himself outside of prison. For others, it’s a fleeting experience that represents a rare time with a father who is sorely missed and remains absent.
What happens when families are damaged or destroyed by incarceration? “Daughters” is an unforgettable glimpse into the promise and possibility of fathers reconnecting with their daughters without any guarantee that these special moments will ever happen again.
Netflix released “Daughters” in select U.S. cinemas on August 9, 2024. The movie will premiere on Netflix on August 14, 2024.