In 2012, Angela Patton delivered a viral TED Talk about her revolutionary Date with Dad prison program—a father-daughter dance between incarcerated dads and their daughters, giving separated families a unique chance to connect and reunite without any physical barriers. The CEO of Girls for a Change—a youth development nonprofit with a mission to empower Black girls in Central Virginia—Patton then found a partner in Natalie Rae, who reached out to collaborate on a film together. The result of their nearly a decade-in-the-making work is Daughters, a heartrending documentary that premiered in Sundance in January 2024, where it was bought by Netflix, which is now streaming the film.

Filmed over the course of several years and following four young girls—Aubrey, Santana, Raziah and Ja’Ana—along with their dads and families throughout, Daughters found its authentic power thanks to the creative and narrative synergy between Patton and Rae. “After my TED Talk, many filmmakers approached me,” recalls Patton. “What attracted me to Natalie was that she understood that the girls were the heart of the story, and the girls needed to lead. It’s their dream and aspiration. That’s when I was like, ‘Okay, this is the right time [to make a film], because this is the right person who I could collaborate with to elevate black girls’ voices in a way that I have never seen before.’”

Rae adds, “When I heard Angela’s TED Talk, I was so inspired as a young woman, as a filmmaker, as an artist. These girls could tap into their intuition, knowing what they needed: I want to a have a dance with my father. Angela didn’t tell them, ‘The chances are going to be pretty small, let’s think of backup ideas.’ No, she was like, ‘Let’s think freely. Let’s write a letter.’ And they wrote a letter, and the sheriff said yes. It is just so powerful what can happen when we listen to the voices of young people. And it’s been an incredible eight years.”

Below is our conversation with Patton and Rae, wrapped shortly before the recent launch of their film on Netflix.

Filmmaker: What went into casting these four incredible young girls, these four families? They all bring a unique dimension to the story.

Natalie Rae: Once we met all the fathers and started meeting the moms and daughters, there was a natural four to six families that really wanted to participate. And these four really stuck the course of these years of filming and had a wonderful span of ages: 5, 10, 11, 15… And they have [different] personality types and connections to their fathers. There were times when it was like, “Would it be more powerful with one girl?” But it was important for us to show that collective power of daughters.

Angela Patton: We had a great partnership with the Washington, DC jail, and all the families had an opportunity to participate. And we really allowed the doc to tell us what it needed. We just got lucky that all of these girls with different ages were outspoken, ready to express themselves. And fortunately, the [families] became ambassadors of understanding that this could help with their healing, and they could pay it forward to other families that may be in similar situations. I always tell them that “Out of the 8 billion people in the world, you were the chosen ones.” But then I think about it again and say, “No, they chose us.”

Filmmaker: This would’ve been an amazing film if you just followed them until the dance, and made the dance itself the final act. But the reason why the film is masterful is because you continue after the dance, giving the story a chance to grow from there. How did you decide that the story doesn’t end with the dance?

Patton: I like that you say masterful. That’s a very powerful word that describes exactly what we wanted people to take away. In order to get there, you have to continue to do the work. The dance is not the solution, the icing on the cake. And it’s definitely not a big bow to tie around [the story]. I think we do a really great job of like getting everybody excited when the girls and the fathers are getting ready. We all know what it means to go to a prom, to get ready for a special occasion and create those memories that are going to be lasting. But we also know that there is some disappointment and heartbreak in this connection within a system that has purposefully tried to destroy and disconnect Black families. And so they go back to their reality, and we needed to make sure that the viewers were able to see that the girls are going to continue to grow and process. And the fathers also have to be with that feeling, become accountable and more responsible. As Chad [Morris, the fatherhood coach] says, it was a rollercoaster ride, so we needed you to go on that ride to see the system’s impact on our families; how it’s designed to destroy hearts, minds and spirits.

Rae: The decision to keep going after the dance was a pretty big moment in the production. All the partners and producers were like, “We got it. This is powerful. Let’s edit our film.” And we did a shorter edit to feel it out, and it was really hard to not go, “Yeah, it is so impactful emotionally, it [has a] traditional structure and it feels so good.” But Angela and I had to take a beat. “You know what? To really see if this is going to be impactful, act three is going to be the most important part of this film. And that’s not going to be one year. It’s probably going to be three, or four years.” Because change between a child and a parent happens slowly. And this film was all about the internal worlds of these girls. So we have to wait and let them keep guiding the way. When we saw and felt these deep internal shifts in the girls, that was really beautiful. We knew then it was a moment where we could start editing.

Filmmaker: In honoring the girls’ journey, you have a strong point of view with your camera choices, your cinematography. There is a sense of beauty and innocence to the look of the film throughout. But the girls’ personalities also inform your visuals. And then you switch gears and shoot the entire dance sequence on film, which brings a different emotional texture to the story.

Rae: When we had our first call with Michael Cambio Fernandez, our cinematographer, it was a really powerful moment. There’s been a lot of these kismet moments, like, “Wow, that was meant to be.” There were a couple of cinematographers we were going to work with that fell out. And then Cambio came recommended. He told us about his childhood, one of his relatives being locked up for seven years, having gone through that process himself. And so the energy on our side of the camera was this very open experience: basically set up an arena where the girls feel comfortable to guide the process, tell us what they want to do that day. We were trying to show, not tell, and each girl really has their own filmmaking style. There is a different way that the camera moves around them. With Aubrey, she’s got these layers of memory and dreams — counting and understanding things, the idea of where her father is. So our approach with her was to showcase that through verité footage, some memory sequences to get into her headspace. Santana is different, very in-the-moment—few cuts, strong compositions.

Patton: One of the things that I am always grateful for is Natalie trusting that we were going to get what we needed. She comes from a film background, and I come from putting on the dances, understanding what that needs. So we were learning together. And this was the first time we both made a doc. And with [shooting the dance], we can’t do it over, it’s one shot. And so she understood that was hard. But [with shooting it on film], we were a nervous wreck just hoping we get it. What we couldn’t do was break up any momentum that these girls deserve with their fathers. Natalie really thought through that process, and I trusted her to capture it. And then later I found out that we really didn’t know if we got it because everybody was crying into the camera, really getting emotional. And so I really love the fact that a lot of this—like good footage, good feeling—is because of luck. Even if you are skillful, even if you have done things a million times, when you let go and do things with purpose, you get what you deserve. That’s why you see something so beautifully done.

Filmmaker: Picking up on what you said, that you have this “one shot”…shooting on film probably intensifies that. Everyone has to bring their A-game.

Rae: Everyone was really dialed in. You have this one chance, this one event. The pressure to get that right and to give it the humanity and the emotion that it deserves…it’s a lot of responsibility. And that was another one of those moments where everyone around the team was like, “You’re going to shoot this on film and maybe not get it?” And we were like, “Come on guys. You trusted us this far.” And it was one of the best decisions that we made. I truly don’t think that the dance would feel as emotional and human [on digital]. It would look more like a lot of other jail and prison films: gritty and digital and high contrast. The medium is the message and it’s just beautiful, what [film] does.

Filmmaker: What were some of the challenging rules you had to follow to shoot inside a prison? Angela, since you’ve been leading this program for a while, that must have eased up some of the protocols.

Patton: Natalie and I had to build trust working with the correctional center. It was a continuum of really building and rebuilding that relationship. They would ask, “Let me see your list of things you want to bring in.” And that could be risky. Natalie and I would be worried about, “Can we bring in this specific camera? How many people are allowed to come in? People have to go through criminal background checks.” So it’s a commitment, [showing] not only the harms that happen in the criminal justice system, but also the joy and the resilience of families when they’re going through this heartbreak in their lives. When I did my first dance, it was like, a cake, a butter knife that they got to check, and only one person could cut the cake. And then after a while, they started to trust more. I could bring in a step-and-repeat, a red carpet. Because they started to see that this was a bigger than they imagined. It was safe and sound. But it’s still a jail at the end of the day. And so we must respect what they need to partner with us and make it a beautiful experience.

Rae: The flow of production and shooting is completely the opposite of the flow of going inside a prison. And so that was challenging on production. But we’re really grateful that we were able to use that room with that beautiful round window and natural light and make the space as human and grounded as possible. They allowed us to do all of the filming with the fathers there during their interviews with Chad. So we just stayed with that, turned off the lights and let the fathers have that space.

Filmmaker: You worked on this for eight years, and you honor multiple POVs in the story—primarily, the girls. But also the fathers and mothers. What went into finding the final edit?

Rae: Editing is the hardest part, having 10 terabytes of footage in my closet and then being like, “Where do we even begin?” We first hired an editor, Troy J. Lewis, a wonderful emerging filmmaker. We spent two years off and on, taking all the hard drives and turning them into a four-hour edit, then a three-hour edit. That’s the time consuming part—what do you cling onto and what do you let go? You have to watch everything, give everything a chance. And your house is covered with these maps and sticky notes. You also need to build in these times where you step away from it, come back and see it fresh. Once we got into our edit last year, we wanted to bring in another editor, Adelina Bichis. She is in London, and Angela and I went there and worked with her. It was so special to be in this creative bubble away from home. And it was really cool to have different collaborators, sketching that sculpture over so much time.

Patton: Where we were in synch the most is that we [all] wanted the voices of the girls [to be the priority]. And what I appreciated was Natalie also giving them the camera sometimes, not having this doc turn into a talking-heads doc. It became exactly what we actually do at Girls for a Change. Be with the girls, be active listeners, be in awe of their imagination. I’m really excited that they were the she-roes of their own story. This was very therapeutic for the girls, just having someone to listen. And I don’t think that they really thought about the cameras [after some point], because people on our team were extremely empathetic. The girls just were having conversations, feeling comfortable.

Once the girls did see the film before we submitted it to Sundance, I remember Santana coming to me, “Oh my God, I am so sorry. Was I that upset?” And I said, “Don’t you ever apologize for your truth. That was who you were and what you felt. Tell me how you are feeling about it today. And she was like, “Much better. Thank you for giving me the permission.” And I said, “Whenever you are feeling that something is heavy on your heart, you need to get that out. I saw a confident girl, a bold girl, a girl who understood what she needed. And do not apologize for that.” I just am so excited that the girls can be a model now to other young girls who feel unheard, feel that they are purposefully silenced. Especially when you’re talking about how your family shows up for you in the Balack community, you usually keep that stuff a secret. We sweep it under the rug, we don’t really use a lot of therapy. We’re getting much better, but there is stigma around venting and sharing when you come from years and years of being silent. So we gave the girls an opportunity to just be themselves and be free. And they took total advantage of that and I will forever be proud.

Filmmaker: Angela, you’ve been with this incredible program for such a long time. I’m curious if you view it from a different perspective after having made a film about it.

Patton: I understood the work of always elevating Black girls’ voices. But what this film allowed me to do is take a different look into the criminal justice system, how it plays a major role in destroying Black and brown families. I understood that I have a new assignment around making sure that the impact campaign is successful and that bringing awareness is one part of change. Now, what are we going to do? I already wear these multiple hats, and that means my hat is just continuing to be stacked on top of my head. But I am ready for the next step. I’m just grateful that Natalie saw the work and decided to protect it with me. I’m excited about what’s next for both of us: as directors, as community champions, as women in this world that tend to tell us what we can and cannot do. So bring on what’s next because we are definitely ready to make sure that the girls’ voices continue to get heard.

Filmmaker: On that note, and with this extremely critical election year the country is going through, have you screened the film to any policymakers yet? What are your hopes for its future?

Patton: That will be the next step for our journey with Netflix, an amazing partner. The impact work. I will say many of [the policymakers] have already started to reach out to us; they’ve heard the buzz about our film. We will screen it in front of political leaders, and also in prisons and jails, in front of individuals that have been impacted by the criminal justice system. We want to make sure that they can use this as a tool to elevate their voices. And then other nonprofit organizations that are working with the youth, that have prison reform initiatives. I’m really excited about so many people seeing it beyond their living rooms.

Rae: It’s so cool to sit back after all this time and [realize that] with every obstacle, the film actually got better because of it. And it does feel like it’s coming out at the perfect time. And hopefully it can be a big part of the conversation around everything that’s really important this year. And I hope it does service to the girls that dedicated their time, shared their vulnerability and strength, and also inspires other people that don’t have these very real cement barriers to mend some family wounds. I just hope that it touches people’s hearts.