Netflix documentary film “Daughters”, which was released a few days ago, presents an aching human story of a bunch of prisoners trying to reconnect with their young daughters. As frequently alternating between these two different groups, the documentary lets us sense and understand their pain and sorrow, and that is why it is quite touching to see how these fathers and daughters eventually come to have a little special moment to remember together.

At first, we get to know a bit about an extraordinary fatherhood program in a number of prisons in US. The participants of this 10-week program are male prisoners willing to try to reconnect with their young daughters, and the early part of the documentary shows us how this special program is done at a big prison near Washington D.C. Under the guidance of their kind and thoughtful coach, the participating inmates, most of whom are incidentally African Americans, are going to prepare for their upcoming meeting with their daughters, and they all recognize how challenging this task can be. After all, they still struggle with being fathers, while also feeling guilty about how they have often been absent throughout their daughters’ life.

Among these inmates, we get to know several particular individuals. In case of a guy named Keith, he wants to reunite with his wife and their 5-year-old daughter as soon as possible, but he will have to be imprisoned for 7 years at least, and he is certainly worried about how that will put more distance between him and his daughter. Although she is still very young while innocently hoping for her dear daddy’s return, his daughter will surely be more aware of his absence in her life, and that will certainly hurt her feeling a lot.

From a 10-year-old girl named Santana, we see how Keith’s daughter may feel when she grows up to be around Santana’s age. While her mother is often occupied with raising her two younger siblings, Santana always has to be the de facto head of her family to take care of one thing after another, and you can instantly sense how much she has been resentful about her father’s absence. Although she agreed to participate in the program nonetheless, she does not seem that willing to meet her father again right now, and it is really heartbreaking to see how weary and disaffected this young girl looks as going through another hard day of her life.

In case of an adolescent girl named Ja’Ana, she looks mostly fine under her dear mother’s care, but she still needs to be connected more with her father, who will definitely be incarcerated for many years without much possibility for parole. As pointed out at one point in the documentary, father and daughter relationship is as important as mother and daughter relationship, and, as letting out more of their personal thoughts and feelings, the participating inmates of the program come to discern more of how important the upcoming event with their daughters will be for their daughters as well as themselves.

Meanwhile, the documentary sometimes reminds us more of how things have been harsh and difficult for the inmates of the prisons in US and their dear family members. As a matter of fact, many of American prisons do not allow any direct personal meetings between inmates and their families at present, and the documentary lets us sense and understand more of how frustrating and suffocating this really is for both sides.

As the participating inmates of the program show more progress week by week, the daughters also go through the preparation stage along with their mothers, who are incidentally going to step aside during the upcoming event. When that day finally comes, the daughters are all excited or anxious, and we soon see them entering the prison one by one as going through some security procedure as required.

Of course, their eventual meeting with their fathers feels pretty awkward to say the least, even though the fathers wear suits instead of their usual orange attire now. Nonetheless, it does not take much time for the fathers and daughters to reconnect with each other, and that is followed by a modest but undeniably touching scene where they dance a bit together as music is being played in the background. Directors Natalie Rae and Angela Patton wisely step back for letting this sweet human moment to speak for itself, and we come to reflect more on the importance of genuine human connection in our life.

However, the documentary does not overlook how things will be hard and difficult as before for everyone once this meeting is over. The fathers cannot help but emotional as they are about to be separated from their daughters again, and the same thing can be said about their daughters. At least, it is undeniable that the program brings considerable positive effects on the inmates, and we are not so surprised to learn later that the recidivism rate of the participants of the program is less than 5 %.

On the whole, “Daughters”, which deservedly won the US Documentary Audience Award when it was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival early in this year, did a splendid job of presenting its various human subjects with respect and sensitivity. It is certainly one of the better documentaries of this year, and I assure you that its many moving moments will linger on your mind for a long time after it is over.