We don't talk enough about the cinematography of documentaries. But we should. And this time, we did.
Daughters premiered in January at Sundance and was released on Netflix in August. The film, co-directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton, centers on and follows four young girls preparing for a special Daddy-Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers. This event is part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C. jail. For most of these girls, the dance is their only opportunity to touch or hug their fathers during sentences that, in some cases, span as long as 20 years.
A film this heartfelt calls for an equally compelling conversation, and Michael Cambio Fernandez, the documentary's cinematographer, delivered exactly that.
In our chat, Cambio walks us through not only his early works but also his life before becoming a cinematographer, his involvement in Daughters, how he navigated its most challenging moments, and how he found the balance between the intentional and unexpected directions the story took.