Ep 215: The Perfect Neighbor exclusive: director Geeta Gandbhir talks about her award-winning doc

About this episode

Anna Smith interviews director Geeta Gandbhir about her documentary The Perfect Neighbor, which explores the tragic shooting of Ajike Owens and its implications for social change.

In today’s on Girls On Film we’re unpacking The Perfect Neighbor - a powerful Netflix documentary that’s up for an Oscar and a BAFTA. It investigates the shooting of Ajike Owens, a mother of four who was beloved in her tight-knit community in Florida. Owen’s neighbour shot her in 2023, after a years-long campaign of harassment that sewed division in their shared neighbourhood. Using police body-cam footage, the documentary pieces together the events that led to this tragedy and asks important questions about what enabled it to happen. Anna sits down with its director and producer Geeta Gandbhir to talk about the making of this tough and urgent film, why its story needs to be brought to the screen, and how filmmaking like this can be a tool for social change. This episode is in partnership with Netflix. The Perfect Neighbor is on Netflix now. Sign up to the Girls On Film newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/iEKaM-/ Or email girlsonfilmsocial@gmail.com to be signed up. Become a patron of Girls On Film on Patreon here: www.patreon.com/girlsonfilmpodcast Visit https://www.girlsonfilm.org.uk/ for more information about the podcast. Become a patron of Girls On Film on Patreon here…

People in this episode

Hosts: Hedda Lornie Archbold, Anna Smith

Guest: Geeta Gandbhir

Topics covered

• documentary
• social change
• harassment
• community

Keywords

• Netflix
• Oscar
• BAFTA
• Ajike Owens

Sponsors

Netflix

Mentioned in this episode

Products: The Perfect Neighbor

Books & works: The Perfect Neighbor, Oscar, BAFTA

Places: Florida

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