Groundbreaking Documentary Relies Entirely on Police Body Cam Footage

A revolutionary new documentary The Perfect Neighbor relies almost entirely on police body camera footage and dashcam video to tell the story of a 2023 murder.

The Perfect Neighbor, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival, unpacks the harrowing case of Susan Lorincz, a white woman in Ocala, Florida, who fatally shot her Black neighbor, Ajike “Aj” Owens — a mother of four — through her front door.

In June 2023, Lorincz fired a single round at Owens as she knocked on her front door. Owens had been seeking answers after Lorincz had repeatedly harassed neighborhood children, including Owens’ own.

Later, in statements to police, Lorincz attempted to justify her actions by invoking Florida’s contentious “stand your ground” law, claiming she feared for her life. Despite this defense, in November 2024, Lorincz was sentenced to 25 years in prison for aggravated manslaughter.

Directed by Geeta Gandbhir, The Perfect Neighbor reconstructs the events leading up to the shooting almost entirely through police body camera and dashcam footage — to reconstruct a timeline of the events that led to that summer day and how one resident’s actions destroyed an otherwise peaceful neighborhood.

The Perfect Neighbor has been one of the most talked-about documentaries at Sundance Film Festival this year — along with The Stringer , a movie which casts aspersions on Nick Ut’s credit on the famous Napalm Girl photograph.

In an interview with Variety, Gandbhir discussed how the unconventional documentary came together after Owens’ family sued police and made public records requests to cops.

As a result of these public records requests, Gandhbir says that all the police body cam footage over the two years before Owens’ murder was released. The filmmaker realized that this footage could be the basis of the documentary.

“We realized that this was the film,” The Perfect Neighbor director tells Variety.

“You so often see the aftermath of incidents like this, you know, then there’s far too many, but you rarely see the lead-up. How did this escalate into this terrible violence and the loss of life?”

Gandbhir, whose sister-in-law was best friends with Owens, says that the body cam footage gave them an intimate insight into the once-harmonious neighborhood.

“In the footage was this incredible process of discovery because you get to meet the community, you understand the police officers’ perspective, and you meet Susan,” she says.

“It [The Perfect Neigbor] is not 100% body camera footage, but it allowed us a window in that, I think oftentimes you don’t get to see, you know, just the events as they unfolded, and we are witnessing that.”

Earlier this month, PetaPixel reported on Ohio lawmakers who passed a controversial bill that could make it more difficult for people to gain access to footage captured by law enforcement, including video from body cameras. The bill includes provisions that enable law enforcement agencies to charge up to $750 for people to gain access to video from police officers and jails.