Four young girls are preparing for a Daddy Daughter Dance with their fathers, all of whom are incarcerated in Washington, DC. For Aubrey, Santana, Raziah, and Ja’Ana, this may be the last time they will be able to hug their fathers for the foreseeable future. Since 2014, in-person visits have been slowly replaced by video calls that benefit for-profit corporations but prevent the possibility of human touch. Meanwhile, their dads are taking part in a twelve-week Date with Dad program to learn how to strengthen their bonds with their daughters and gain skills to navigate the challenges of family and fatherhood upon their eventual release.

A meaningful and affecting portrait of the systemic impacts of carceral systems, Natalie Rae and Angela Patton’s film is the result of an eight-year collaboration. By turn joyful and devastating, Rae and Patton show the girls and their fathers in all of their beautiful complexity, upending stereotypes around incarceration and revealing the redemptive power of family bonds. TS

Filmmaker Q&A following screening