By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival is having a front-row seat for the bright future of independent filmmaking. While we can learn a lot about the filmmakers from the 2025 Sundance Film Festival through the art that these storytellers share with us, there's always more we can learn about them as people. We decided to get to the bottom of those artistic wells with our ongoing series: Give Me the Backstory!
On June 2, 2023, a 35-year-old Black woman named Ajike Owens knocked on her neighbor's door in Ocala, Florida. Her neighbor, a 58-year-old white woman named Susan Lorincz, had already called the police over what she believed to be trespassing by Owens' children on her property. This wasn't the first time Lorincz had called the police with claims against Owens and her children. Shortly after Owens began knocking that night, Lorincz shot her through the door. Lorincz claims she feared for her life. Owens died, leaving behind four young children.
Director Geeta Gandbhir's film The Perfect Neighbor, screening as part of the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, is largely made up of police bodycam footage, tracking events from the first time Lorincz called the police to complain about Owens and her children over a year prior up until the final - fatal - incident. The footage shows inconsistencies in Lorincz's stories to the police, as well as testimonies from other neighbors that dispute her claims. Because of Florida's stand your ground laws, a resident can exert deadly force against another individual if they believe doing so will prevent bodily harm. By claiming she feared for her life, Lorincz felt justified in shooting Owens.
Stand your ground laws' in this country lead to the disproportionate death of BIPOC folks, and this is a travesty of justice. The fatal combination of stand your ground laws' and lax gun regulations put us all in grave danger, says Gandbhir. Ajike Owens would be alive today had Susan not had access to a gun. Susan Lorincz is a person who was in clear need of mental health services, not a gun, she continues. My hope is that this film helps impact change around gun regulations and the castle doctrines in this country.
Gandbhir's directorial vision with The Perfect Neighbor won her the Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Below, learn more about the filmmaker and how she approached the project.
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