Showing the 'Before' of a Community

Emmy Award-winning director and Academy Award nominee Geeta Gandbhir joins the Chuck Toddcast to discuss her critically acclaimed Netflix documentary The Perfect Neighbor, which uses years of police bodycam footage to reconstruct the events leading to the 2023 fatal shooting of Ajike Owens by her neighbor Susan Lorincz in Ocala, Florida. Gandbhir reveals that Owens was a personal friend of her family — her sister-in-law's best friend — and that the film was never initially planned as a documentary; she and her partner went to Florida to support the family and keep the story in the news, fearing Lorincz would walk free under Florida's stand your ground laws. The Sundance Directing Award winner explains how the production team obtained the bodycam footage through the family's attorneys, Benjamin Crump and Anthony Thomas, and describes the rare experience of having not just the aftermath but years of "before" footage — creating a slow-building tension she compares to Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity. Gandbhir emphasizes that the film doesn't preach; it simply presents the chronology and lets the audience decide.

The conversation goes deeper into the systemic failures the footage revealed: Lorincz was the only person in the neighborhood who repeatedly called police, yet officers saw her as a nuisance rather than a threat — her whiteness, Gandbhir argues, shielding her from scrutiny. Police never checked whether Lorincz owned a gun, and in other states, her pattern of behavior would have resulted in harassment charges long before the shooting. Gandbhir explains why the case resulted in a manslaughter conviction rather than a more serious charge, advocates for the eradication of stand your ground laws that exist in 38 states, and makes a compelling case that some police funding would be better directed toward social workers and mental health professionals. She also reflects on what the film has meant to Owens' four children and their family, the power of bodycam footage as both a tool for truth and a potential instrument of surveillance, and what a potential Academy Award would mean — not for herself, but as a platform to drive real change.

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Timeline:

(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)

00:00 Geeta Gandbhir joins the Chuck ToddCast

00:45 “The Perfect Neighbor” isn’t a gun story, it’s a societal story

01:30 How important is a potential Academy Award for you?

02:15 Awards give you a platform to talk about issues & bring change

03:00 Film produced independently, then Netflix gave it a huge platform

04:00 How close did you follow this story in real time?

04:30 Ajike Owens was a personal friend of Geeta

05:45 There’s so much gun violence, individual stories don’t break through

06:45 The production team received body cam footage from family lawyers

08:00 We usually see the aftermath of shootings, rarely the before footage

09:45 Needed to understand chronology of body cam footage

11:00 Film’s tension building compared to Blair Witch & Paranormal Activity

11:45 Racial justice/tension movies can make for a difficult watch

12:45 Movie doesn’t preach, just shows the event & let’s audience decide

14:30 Footage portrayed a working class, striving community

16:00 Everyone knows the Susan Lorincz, “get off my lawn” type character

16:45 No understanding of why Susan Lorincz was so broken as a person

19:30 Lorincz was the only woman in the neighborhood that complained to police

20:15 This didn’t feel like manslaughter, it felt pre-meditated

21:00 Prosecutors felt a manslaughter charge would be easier to convict

21:30 Hope DeSantis understands the damage stand your ground laws cause

22:45 If there was no body camera footage, Susan could have walked

24:00 Police bodycams should be on at all times to prevent distortion of truth

24:45 Bodycam footage is a double edged sword, can be used for surveillance

25:30 Original footage included protests, funerals & B-roll of the neighborhood

27:15 Neighbors had a very visceral reaction to the film, but did find it therapeutic

28:45 Having body camera footage could have prevented historical race riots

30:15 The ultimate hope is to eradicate “stand your ground” laws

31:15 There’s power in telling a true story with unscripted footage

33:30 Ajike Owens was a bright young woman with a promising future

34:45 How are her children doing?

36:15 Watching the grief of the children was devastating & powerful

37:30 Family wanted the world to see their grief

38:00 Hope the film can inform police training

38:45 In other states, Susan would have been charged for nuisance or harassment

40:00 Some police funding would be better spent on social workers, psychiatrists etc

41:15 It felt like police didn’t know how to handle Susan

42:45 Police saw Susan as a nuisance, not a threat. Her whiteness protected her

44:30 Susan seemed to be a loner & clearly always miserable

45:30 Police never checked into whether Susan was a gun owner

46:30 What type of projects are you working on next?

47:45 Another documentary will be announced in a couple weeks

49:00 Telling the story in a visual medium reaches people who don’t read

51:00 Comedy and humor is a great way to teach

51:30 How do you use AI, what are you comfortable with, what will you fight?

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