The trailer for Geeta Gandbhir’s The Perfect Neighbor starts with a series of all-too-familiar phone calls. A white woman, Susan Lorincz, dials 911 over and over to complain about her Black neighbors’ children playing football, running around, and generally just existing in their own yard. Later, somebody says they heard a “bang” and we see an ambulance drive up for Ajike Owens, the children’s mother, as her family desperately flags it down. Captured entirely through police bodycam footage, Gandbhir’s harrowing documentary, which won the Directing Award at Sundance earlier this year, tells the true story of how this campaign of racist harassment spiraled into a devastating act of violence.
The documentary sheds light on the consequences of Florida’s stand-your-ground laws, which enable citizens to use deadly force in self-defense. “The Perfect Neighbor is a deeply personal project, created to transform grief into purpose and honor the lasting legacy of Ajike Owens and her family,” Gandbhir said in a statement. “My team at Message Pictures, along with our incredible partners at S’OB Productions and Park Pictures, are thrilled the film will be available on Netflix, offering audiences worldwide the chance to experience this urgent and powerful story.”
In February, The A.V. Club‘s film editor Jacob Oller named The Perfect Neighbor one of the best films out of Sundance this year. “As the film’s horrors wear on, its upsetting and explicit access drive its points into the pit of your stomach,” he writes. “Stand-your-ground laws, gun ownership, the ineffectiveness of police even when they’re doing everything ‘right’ (because this body-cam footage wouldn’t exist if they thought they were doing something ‘wrong’)—all this and more weighs heavy throughout the tough watch. It leaves you angry and cold, like so many films and news stories about so much needless death in this country.”
The Perfect Neighbor opens in select theaters October 10. It premieres on Netflix October 17.
