The Perfect Neighbor: Netflix Documentary Exposes Racial Tensions & Fatal Shooting
- When Ajike Owens envisioned her future, she saw herself as a successful entrepreneur, a name known to the world.
- The documentary centers on Susan Lorincz, a white woman who repeatedly contacted law enforcement to complain about children in her Florida neighborhood, particularly those near the property she...
- As the legal case against Lorincz progressed, attorneys representing Owens’s family obtained access to hours of police body-camera footage through a Freedom of Information Act request.
When Ajike Owens envisioned her future, she saw herself as a successful entrepreneur, a name known to the world. Filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir encountered that ambition while sifting through over 30 hours of police body-camera footage and audio recordings that form the core of The Perfect Neighbor, her Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary about the events leading up to , when Owens was fatally shot.
The documentary centers on Susan Lorincz, a white woman who repeatedly contacted law enforcement to complain about children in her Florida neighborhood, particularly those near the property she rented. The situation escalated on , when Lorincz called police regarding a dispute involving Owens’s children, roller skates, and a missing iPad. Minutes later, Lorincz shot Owens through a closed door.
Susan Lorincz tells her side of a neighborhood dispute, as captured in police body-cam footage that fuels much of The Perfect Neighbor. Courtesy of Netflix
As the legal case against Lorincz progressed, attorneys representing Owens’s family obtained access to hours of police body-camera footage through a Freedom of Information Act request. Gandbhir, alongside her producing partner and husband, Nikon Kwantu (whose cousin was Owens’s best friend, Kimberly Robinson-Jones), found the footage reminiscent of found-footage horror films like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. “The community had lived a real-life horror film,” Gandbhir explained. “So we wanted to create something that placed you in the community.” She and editor Viridiana Lieberman crafted a film where police inadvertently became the documentarians of the unfolding tragedy.
Geeta Gandbhir is a double Oscar nominee for The Perfect Neighbor (best documentary feature) and The Devil Is Busy (best documentary short). Bryan Derballa/Getty Images
Some critics have suggested that presenting the story primarily through the lens of law enforcement could inadvertently lead viewers to sympathize with the police. Gandbhir, however, maintains that the film’s focus isn’t on the police perspective. “We were really not that concerned with the perspective of the police. They were just the vehicle to showcase this community as they were. When the police come into communities of color, surveillance can be used to criminalize,” she stated. “We wanted it to humanize.”
Gandbhir believes that society as a whole failed the community in this case. “Susan was able to weaponize her race and privilege. And by not realizing she was a danger to the community and probably herself, her life is ruined too,” she continued. “She’s ostensibly spending the rest of her life in jail. And as an abolitionist at heart, I really wish that on no one.”
Lorincz attempted to invoke Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law as a defense, claiming she acted in self-defense, fearing for her life when Owens knocked on her door after her son alleged Lorincz had thrown a pair of skates at him. This legal strategy was previously employed successfully by George Zimmerman in the case involving the death of Trayvon Martin. In , Lorincz was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 25 years in prison, a conviction she is currently appealing.
The Perfect Neighbor, released on Netflix on , is not simply a recounting of a tragic event; it’s a stark examination of race, prejudice, policing, and gun ownership in America, told through the raw and unsettling immediacy of police footage. The documentary, praised for its innovative camerawork, serves as a chilling reminder of the consequences of unchecked bias and the complexities of justice in a society grappling with deep-seated inequalities.