When Ajike Owens was alive, she dreamed of becoming a famous entrepreneur. \u201cYou laugh at me,\u201d she\u2019d tell her mother, Pam Dias,<\/strong> \u201cbut one day the whole world\u2019s going to know my name.\u201d Years later, filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir<\/strong><\/a> thought about Owens\u2019s avowal while sifting through the 30-plus hours of police body-camera footage and audio recordings that make up The Perfect Neighbor<\/a>,<\/em> her Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary<\/a> about the two years leading up to Owens\u2019s killing<\/a>.<\/p>\n The documentary tells the story of Susan Lorincz,<\/strong> who regularly called police to the otherwise tight-knit Florida community where Owens was raising her four children to complain about neighborhood kids playing near her rented property. On June 2, 2023, Lorincz rang authorities over a dispute involving Owens\u2019s children, roller skates, and a missing iPad. Minutes later, the white 58-year-old Lorincz fatally shot her Black neighbor, 35-year-old Owens, through her closed front door.<\/p>\n Susan Lorincz tells her side of a neighborhood dispute, as captured in police body-cam footage that fuels much of The Perfect Neighbor<\/em>.<\/span>Courtesy of Netflix<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n As the case against Lorincz was coming together, attorneys for Owens\u2019s family gained access to hours of police body-camera footage through the Freedom of Information Act. Reviewing it alongside her producing partner and husband, Nikon Kwantu<\/strong> (whose cousin was Owens\u2019s best friend, Kimberly Robinson-Jones<\/strong>), Gandbhir said it \u201creminded us of films like The Blair Witch Project<\/em> or Paranormal Activity<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> The community had lived a real-life horror film. So we wanted to create something that placed you in the community.\u201d To raise both media awareness around Owens\u2019s killing and money for the family, Gandbhir and her editor, Viridiana Lieberman,<\/strong> made a film in which cops inadvertently serve as cinematographers.<\/p>\n Geeta Gandbhir is a double Oscar nominee for The Perfect Neighbor<\/em> (best documentary feature) and The Devil Is Busy<\/em> (best documentary short).<\/span>Bryan Derballa\/Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n Some have argued<\/a> that watching a film told largely through the very same system that failed Owens could make viewers identify too closely with law enforcement. \u201cWe 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,\u201d Gandbhir tells Vanity Fair<\/em> in response. \u201cWe wanted it to humanize.\u201d<\/p>\n She doubles down on the belief that \u201cour society essentially failed this community. [The police] didn\u2019t see them as worth protecting. 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,\u201d Gandbhir continues. \u201cShe\u2019s ostensibly spending the rest of her life in jail. And as an abolitionist at heart, I really wish that on no one.\u201d<\/p>\n Lorincz attempted to utilize Florida\u2019s \u201cStand Your Ground\u201d law<\/a> as a defense, arguing that she was legally allowed to use deadly force because she feared for her life when Owens banged on her door demanding to speak after her son said Lorincz threw a pair of skates at him. This was also the successful legal tactic of Trayvon Martin<\/a>\u2019s killer, George Zimmerman,<\/strong> who was acquitted in 2013. In 2024, Lorincz was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 25 years in prison. She has appealed her conviction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n