January 11, 2025 – This documentary, one of the year's best, highlights a surprisingly simple and effective prison program started by Angela Patton of Richmond, VA. Patton is CEO of “Girls For A Change,” and co-director of this film, in which she also appears as herself.

This movie shows the fathers and daughters preparing for a “Daddy Daughter Dance” at the jail, part of a unique fatherhood program at a Washington, D.C. jail. The dance is meant to overcome the forced isolation of prisoners from their families, and allow them to reconnect.

The jail setting in the film is Orwellian, with infrequent contact between prisoners and families limited to phone calls, or video monitors, with no direct views or human contact. In addition, prisoners are moved frequently to different facilities, some of which may be far away from their families. There are also significant financial burdens on the families, who pay high costs to pay for their phone calls with prisoners.

The film does not indicate what the men were convicted of. They are all black, as are all the girls. The men in the fatherhood program at the jail participate in group therapy sessions led by a former prisoner to get them ready for the dance. Four of the girls who will be at the dance are shown in the movie, along with their mothers, some of whom are very angry at their husbands. Some of the girls are angry too.

Powerful, raw emotions come through very strongly in some parts of the movie. For me, the most emotional scene is when the girls show up for the dance and meet their fathers, some for the first time in years. The fathers, sitting in chairs in a hallway, waiting, craning their necks for a first glimpse of their daughters, wait anxiously.

When the daughters rush into the arms of their fathers and they embrace, it is a moment of heartbreaking joy. The fathers have been warned in advance about the roller coaster of emotions of embracing their daughters, only to know they will have to let them go again hours later after the dance. They are told to gird themselves for their feelings of sorrow at the end of the evening when the time approaches for their daughters to leave.

It seems like such a simple thing, to allow fathers to hold their daughters, talk to them and be with them for a short time, but the results are astonishing. It turns out that daughters need their fathers, but fathers also need their daughters. From 30 to 80 per cent of prisoners (depending largely upon how old they were when they were first arrested) in the U.S. end up back in jail after they are released. But of those prisoners in this program, the ones permitted to dance with their daughters, only five per cent return to jail.

The movie doesn't end when the dance ends and the daughters go home. It continues, showing the aftermath of what happens to the men and their daughters years later. In some cases, the men who are released fulfill the promises they made to their daughters to stay in their lives. In some cases, the men will still be in jail for decades after their daughters grow up and leave home.

This is a movie that shows a side of prisoners that most people have never seen. Directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton, it is one of the year's best documentary films. It rates an A.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff (no extra charges apply). I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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