Many times, a girl’s first relationship or love is her father. He is the one who shows her how she should be treated by future male relationships in her life. How she should be respected, giving her confidence to be who she is. What happens if a girl’s father is imprisoned and not in her life on a day to day basis. The documentary DAUGHTERS gives us an inside view.
DAUGHTERS is a documentary that follows four young girls whose fathers are incarcerated in Washington, DC. It follows the girls and their fathers as they prepare for the first Daddy Daughter Dance as part of a 10 week prison fatherhood program and the organization Date with Dad program.
Out of the group of men the film is focused on four men and their daughters. 5 year old Aubrey Smith and her father Keith Sweptson; 10 year old Santana Stewart and her father Mark Grimes; 11 year old Ja’Ana Crudup and her father Frank Walker; and 15 year old Raziah Lewis and her father Alonzo Lewis.
We get to know the girls really well and the way they look at and feel about their fathers being in prison. Some of the fathers have gone to prison multiple times.
The program gave the fathers and daughters a chance to meet for the first time where they can physically touch for a Daddy Daughter Dance in the prison gym. When the day comes the Daddies get to take off the orange prison uniforms and wear suits, ties, belts and real shoes. Their daughters will get to see them as men and not prisoners. The nerves are very apparent when the Daddies wait to see their daughters.
5 year old Aubrey Smith grabs your heart right away. She loves her daddy and has the wisdom of a much older child. She is very smart and a math wiz and believes her daddy will be home soon. Her confidence is infectious. When she sees her dad she can’t stop talking and impressing him with her multiplication skills. She encourages him to do good so he can get out in 7 years. Her dad Keith tries to prepare her so that he may have to stay a little longer.
10 year old Santana is older than her years and she is so angry at her father. She has built a wall around her feelings for her daddy. She is angry that he did and continues to go to prison. She is stone faced when she walks down the hall to see her dad, however, the ice breaks when she sees him and yells “Daddy” and throws herself into his arms, however, the wall of hurt rises up.
Ja’Ana who is 11 during the time of the dance seems to be a well rounded girl with friends that she loves to dance and laugh with. Her mother, Unita watches closely and won’t let her go to prison to visit her father Frank. Unita states that Frank had no interest in seeing his daughter until after he went to prison.
Raziah is 15 and the oldest of the girls. She talks about the milestones her father Alonzo missed and will continue to miss.
DAUGHTERS is a film that touches the hearts as we see how some daughters have created who they wish their dads would be, some understand that their dad will never be the man they wish, and some hope that when their dads get out they will work toward being the man and father they should have been.
The Daddy Daughter Dance goes as well as can be expected with tears and hugs when it is time for the day to be over and the suits, belts, shoes, and ties are put in a pile and the orange suits come on, and the young daughters leave perhaps never seeing their fathers again.
The film will cover five years past the dance so we will get to see the changes in the lives of both the girls and their dads.
It truly is a must see and even a teaching moment.
DAUGHTERS is on Netflix and I give it 5 winks of the EYE.
Until next time, keep your EYE to the sky!