In an unconventional approach to documentary filmmaking, director and award winning editor Geeta Gandbhir relied entirely on police body camera footage to tell the story of a neighborhood tragedy in “The Perfect Neighbor,” a ripped-from the-headlines documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday.
“We got our hands on the body cam footage, and we realized how critical it was to show the before of this story,” Gandbhir told TheWrap CEO Sharon Waxman at TheWrap’s Sundance Studio presented by World of Hyatt. “We often see the aftermath of such a tragedy, right? But how rarely do we see the community and the family as they were before?”
“The Perfect Neighbor” explores how a tight-knit community was torn apart after Susan Lorincz, a 60-year-old white woman from central Florida, shot and killed her neighbor Ajike Owens, a 35-year-old Black mother of four, through a locked door. The film uses police footage to document both the peaceful community life before the incident and the fallout in its tragic aftermath.
Executive producer Soledad O’Brien emphasized how the footage provided unfiltered access to events.
“I think it’s additionally helpful we stay out of it,” O’Brien said. “There’s no person saying, ‘I picked these people. I’ve shot it this way.’ It’s just this is how police responded. This is their point of view.”
For Pamela Dias, Owens’ mother, the raw footage captured painful truths about the incident. “My daughter lost her life because of hate,” Diaz said. “This was a community of family and of children playing, and my daughter lost her life because of hate.”
The film highlights issues around “Stand Your Ground” laws, racial tensions and community divisions. Gandbhir noted that the police footage showed an otherwise harmonious neighborhood disrupted by one resident’s actions. “None of these other people call the police, none of these other people do that. It’s her,” she said, referring to Lorincz’ repeated complaints about children playing.
Lorincz was sentenced to 25 years in prison for aggravated manslaughter in November 2024.
Watch the full interview with Gandbhir, O’Brien and Dias in the video above.
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