‘Daughters’ Filmmakers Angela Patton and Natalie Rae Say It Is ‘Overdue to Invest in Black Girls and Their Resilience’
It’s been an 8-year journey for the directors of the documentary “Daughters” to reach the IndieWire Honors stage on Thursday, December 5 in Hollywood. Filmmakers Angela Patton and Natalie Rae have watched the film’s young subjects grow up and bear their souls, and in accepting the Magnify Award, they made sure to dedicate their prize to those young women.
“It’s an 8-year journey of young girls showing up to tell you their stories, their vulnerability, and they’re girls who have changed my life,” Patton said in her speech. “I hope that if you have not seen ‘Daughters’ that your perspective will change, that your life would change, and that you know that it is time, it is overdue to invest in Black girls and their resilience, because Black women can’t.”
More from IndieWire
Rae shouted out the four Black girls in “Daughters” — Aubrey, Santana, Ja’Ana, and Raziah — as well as the many crew members who poured their “heart and sacrifice and passion that went into every frame of this film.”
“Aubrey, Santana, Ja’Ana, Raziah, this is for you guys. These are our girls,” Rae said. “They let us sit on their bedroom floors for six years and hang out and share their deepest fears and their vulnerability and now is there for the world to see. So this is for them. I love you guys so much. You changed my life, and you’ll inspire so many people.”
Rae and Patton won the Magnify Award at the IndieWire Honors ceremony in Los Angeles on Thursday, December 5 on behalf of “Daughters.” The film is the story of Patton’s organization Girls for a Change, which offers a rehabilitation program for prisoners by giving them the chance to reconnect with their young daughters as part of a one-night Daddy-Daughter dance.
The documentary film, which won the Audience Award in its premiere at Sundance and was acquired by Netflix, follows not just the men in the program but the daughters on the other side of the prison bars and how their development has been impacted as a result of not having a father figure in their lives and frequently being apart from their dads. The film lands an emotional gut punch with its verité filmmaking style while also shining a light on the strains the American justice system can put on families.
IndieWire wasn’t the only one moved by the film. “Nickel Boys” director and writer RaMell Ross in his own acceptance speech later in the evening called “Daughters” a “devastating production” and “wild.” Rae returned the favor by saying that many of the other honorees on Thursday helped inspire some of the film’s visual references.
When Patton and Rae spoke with IndieWire at Sundance, they explained that whenever others tried to tell Patton’s story about Girls for a Change, the stories of the girls themselves was frequently ignored, and partnering together as filmmakers in telling the story, even while Patton is still a subject of her own film, helped broaden the scope and the emotional heft of the work she’s doing.
“They share a joint commitment to center the girls and not make this a ‘prison story’ or a story that was primarily about the dads and their experience in the system,” executive producer Kerry Washington told IndieWire prior to Patton and Rae accepting their honor. “’Daughters’ puts the girls center stage. Natalie brings her filmmaker experience and Angela brings her lived wisdom as a changemaker. The result is tremendous. It feels like a marriage made in heaven.”
Washington told IndieWire she connected with the story because of her own complicated relationship with her father that she detailed in her memoir “Thicker Than Water” as well as through the show “Unprisoned” that shares parallel themes. She also admired Patton’s mission to “prepare Black girls for the world but also to prepare the world for Black girls.”
“I love both of these filmmakers so much. Their ability to hold a mirror up to the culture and show us who we are is a real talent,” Washington said. “One of the things I’m most proud of about the film is that Angela and Natalie are not afraid to break your hearts with this film, but that’s because they know that they are breaking our hearts open. They don’t break our hearts to devastate us and make us feel hopeless. They break our hearts open so they can make us feel more in touch with the love that is required to make positive change in society right now. It’s such an honor to be a witness to their success and to bring more visibility to the film and to Girls for a Change.”
Watch Patton and Rae’s full speech above, and check out all of our IndieWire Honors coverage right here.
“Daughters” is available to stream on Netflix now.
Best of IndieWire
Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
