Tina Kakadelis
Daughters had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The documentary follows four young girls whose fathers are incarcerated as they all prepare for the upcoming Daddy Daughter Dance. At Sundance, Daughters picked up both the Festival Favorite and Audience Choice: U.S. Documentary Competition awards. With the film streaming on Netflix, composer Kelsey Lu emailed with Film Obsessive News Editor Tina Kakadelis to discuss how their involvement in the project came to be, creating a musical theme for each of the young girls, and their belief in collaboration’s essential role in filmmaking. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Film Obsessive: You’ve scored a narrative feature and a documentary so far. Do you feel the score serves a different purpose in fiction versus nonfiction?
Kelsey Lu: No, they both serve the same purpose of supporting the heart and the characters within the film. Whether fiction or non, it is storytelling and both, in my opinion, should be valued.
How did you get involved with Daughters?
I was brought into the fold of Daughters through my dear friend Natasha Lyonne. She said “im sending you something special to score, documentary, very special film emailed you all the links etc.” I followed up with the directors Angela and Natalie, watched the latest edit cried my way through it, knew I barley had any time to work on it, 10 days to be exact, but my gut was telling me I had to be a part of something so important and that I could achieve it. At the time, I was going through some major health set backs, I had to cancel a really special performance because of it, and so I ended up having the time on my hands to pull it all together.
Each of the girls has their own theme. Can you talk about the process of creating a distinct sound for each of the young girls?
These incredibly strong vulnerable girls really opened themselves up for the world to see, so I really just wanted honor what they offered of themselves in return. Most importantly, I really listened to what they had to say, paid attention to their body language, to their growth throughout the arc of the film. We follow them for such a long period of time. So I was thinking about time and how that affected their personalities, their relationships etc. For example, Aubrey is the first girl we’re introduced too, and she’s so young and charismatic, inquisitive, just so excited to learn, so optimistic. So I wanted to reflect that same kind of curiosity in the sound by creating space for wonder. One of the ways that I did that was to have the piano roving from left to right, oscillating in a a circle, like how we see her mind wandering.
Each of the selections feels very layered with different tones and instruments. Can you break down some of the layers that make up your score for those who aren’t as musically inclined?
There are many layers and some of what makes up those layers are the way that I treat and mix what I have already recorded or what microphone I’ve decided to use because different microphones pick up different frequencies or what piano I’ve decided to use according to what scene or character is being supported musically. For example, there are scenes that have a recurring theme but I don’t want to just repeat it exactly the same way because it’s evolving every time, so I take the piano part and I run it through a machine that can alter the sound of the piano to make it appear slightly different. I can make it sound like it’s in reverse or ike it’s inside of a can or inside of a cave etc. I can also change the pitch of things, or take out some of the instruments so it’s not as full or add additional ones so it sounds fuller.
While watching the film, it struck me how tactile it felt, and you have a few selections in the score specifically named “TOUCH.” How did you emote the sensation of touch in a musical, audio only sense?
Touch is related to memory, so I wanted to give a sense of longing within that at time, grounding in others. That can come in the form of the way that notes linger after they’ve been played or on the decision to use two different types of pianos in one song. Touch is a recurring theme throughout the film, so in one stage I decided to use a grand piano to represent the grounding force of the father and then the Wurlitzer to represent the daughters because it feels more youthful, more playful.
One of the most striking moments for me was your score that played as the fathers and daughters are reuniting in the hallway before the dance. Music has this incredible power to really stir something up in the viewer, especially when it’s an already emotionally charged moment. When composing, how do you ensure that the emotional response you create is earned?
Music is such an incredible force and I never want to use it to manipulate the viewer , but rather to support and express the emotions that are pouring through the film and the characters. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for , this is when we see all of the girls together with their fathers who have been spending the past 10 weeks in deep review, processing their relationships with their daughters with their fathers and with themselves. This had to be the lushest moment of all because they all have earned it.
In all of your work, there’s a focus on collaboration and healing. What was it like to work on a project with a similar goal?
It’s not only fulfilling a life long dream, but it’s reaffirming the intentions I’ve been setting for many many years.
Now that you have a few scores under your belt, is there a genre of movie you’d like to try your hand at next?
There are so many I would love to explore. Films that have largely impacted me over the years have explored themes such as spiritualism and the metaphysical which can allow for slow pacing and experimentation within sound design etc., psychological thrillers with a strong female lead and/or queer cast that are provocative and explore subjects such as complex eroticism, visceral body horror, technology, social commentary. I just want to keep working on good films. Period.
