ATTENDING DOCUMENTARY FILM SCREENING: 2 POINTS - Bethany Benjamin

ATTENDING DOCUMENTARY FILM SCREENING: 2 POINTS 

On October 26th, there was a screening of the film Daughters held at Spelman. This was my second viewing of the film. I had watched it once on Netflix before, but this time around, the experience was different. Being able to sit down and truly absorb the film in a screening environment was a new experience, and having the opportunity to sit in conversation about it afterward was equally illuminating. The documentary Daughters, directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton, follows young girls and their incarcerated fathers as they prepare for a father-daughter dance through the “Date with Dad” program. One aspect of the film that I found very interesting was the storyline switching from the daughter to the father. By having their two stories run concurrently, we got to see, as the POV switched back and forth, the connectedness between the two and the emphasis on how that father’s incarceration really did trigger a large shift in his daughter’s life. The fathers were often shot in their preparatory sessions forthe dance, with them being depicted in a seated, thoughtful community as opposed to the stereotypical depictions of prisoners as abrasive or thoughtless. It was also brought up in the following chat with Patton that many others in the crowd also found it interesting that the father’s charges were never brought up throughout the film. Patton later explained the care that had to go into the depiction of the daughters and the fathers, to ensure that the film did not become exploitative. I also found it very impressive how the filmmakers were able to allow the mothers to shine while still separating the state of the parents’ relationship from that of the father and daughters. I truly believe that the way this film, both thematically and technically, was approached with such care and meticulousness is what eventually made the final product so powerful.