I I was almost moved after watching less than a minute of this poignant documentary about a father-daughter dance program for the daughters of incarcerated fathers in Washington, DC, such is the emotional power of this magnificent, Sundance Award-winning film.

With a confident, just casual co-direction by music video director Natalie Rae and Angela Patton – activist and founder of the Date With Dad weekend – Daughters feels like the happy alchemical combination of two very different but complementary voices. Patton’s impressive communication skills, already demonstrated in a widely viewed Ted Talk, drive a film that bears a resemblance to the Folsom Prison group therapy documentary, and has a similarly harrowing effect. The workAnd Rae’s visual flair gives the film a childlike lyricism that captures the intoxicating magic of Animals of the southern wilderness. It is also elegantly edited, by Troy Lewis and Adelina Bichis (whose work I have previously reviewed on the similarly poetic Nascondino).

But most importantly, we follow the people we accompany as they prepare for this rare opportunity for face-to-face contact (since 2014, many U.S. prisons no longer allow in-person visits with inmates). Five-year-old Aubrey beams as she boasts about her mastery of times tables; the walls of her house are covered with school reports she earned to make her father, Keith, proud of her. Ten-year-old Santana is a raging storm at her father, Mark. And 15-year-old Raziah is so affected by Alonzo’s incarceration that she struggles with depression. And finally, Ja’Ana has never met Frank, her father, whose prison sentence has banished him from her life.

Meanwhile, the men attend sessions with a “father-life coach” to prepare them for the emotional rollercoaster that lies ahead. The dance is the film’s high point, a burst of joy and optimism. But the film’s conclusion, shot three years later, shows the price of a long separation. Hope is a spark that can easily be extinguished.

In selected cinemas and on Netflix