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Netflix's latest documentary, Daughters, premiered on August 14, 2024, after a thunderous performance at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The movie also got a limited theatrical release ahead of its Netflix premiere on August 9. Coming from directors Angela Patton and Natalie Rae, this is perhaps one of the best documentaries to premiere on Netflix this year.
Following a special event and its implications over a period of many years, this documentary takes viewers across a prom dance event at a Washington prison, where children of inmates are allowed one afternoon with their incarcerated fathers. With a focus on four such cases, the near-two-hour documentary sheds light on plenty of important issues, including the effect incarceration has on families.
Apart from its premise, which is great enough in itself, Daughters is also an exemplary documentary movie, perfecting aspects like editing, arranging, and a depth of subject matter.
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Daughters is a chilling portrait with a lot of thought behind it
The subject matter of Daughters is certainly unique. But that is not all the documentary has. In fact, the biggest element that separates Daughters from many documentary features is its patience and honesty.
While the impact of this program, nicknamed as daddy-daughter dance, has been discussed in the movie, it is really the effect it has on the children that stands out the most.
With the most unlikely subjects of a father-daughter relationship, this new Netflix documentary tugs and pulls at your heartstrings as it explores prison and its impacts, often through the eyes of kids, eyes that can hardly see anything but their father.
The story of the inmates, their crimes, and their punishment, all take a backseat in this documentary, which primarily relishes its time in observing some of the dances. And the moments it leads to are absolutely worth everything.
In fact, the documentary gets emotional from the very start and the very first dance, and from there on, it is hard to not feel the very tender, human emotions that lie at the heart of Natalie Rae and Angela Patton's beautiful portrait of human nature.
Daughters tends to raise questions subtly and answers them with ease
Documentaries, especially like this one, already have a hook that is interesting enough to pull viewers. But things go up a notch when documentaries try to answer bigger, more prominent questions through their portrayals.
Daughters raises the question of incarceration, its effects on families, and how relationships aren't that much different for prison inmates. In its beautiful portrayal, the movie raises some big, and often alarming, questions about the justice system and human nature, all of which force the viewers to think.
But all this is done so subtly that few would notice if they do not pay the requisite attention.
The film also makes it a point to emphasize that 95 percent of men who have had this interaction with their children have not gone back to prison, giving a glimpse at the inherent goodness of human nature and how mistakes and crimes can hardly shake the foundation of being human.
All in all, Daughters is perhaps one of the best documentaries available on Netflix right now, and it has the ability to make viewers think, emote, and resonate.
