The Perfect Neighbor, a documentary that examines Florida’s Stand Your Ground laws and gun regulations, is in final negotiations to sell to Netflix after premiering at the 2025 Sundance Festival.
The price tag is roughly $5 million, although the deal hasn’t been signed.
The film, which debuted to critical praise, uses police bodycam footage to tell the story of how a neighborhood dispute slowly escalated into a shocking act of violence.
It follows a tragedy that captivated national attention, one in which a woman named Ajike “AJ” Shantrell Owens was shot and killed by her neighbor, Susan Lorincz, after Lorincz kept complaining about children playing near her apartment.
The Perfect Neighbor was one of the most powerful documentaries at the festival and is believed to have awards potential.
Geeta Gandbhir directed the film and had a personal connection to the story. Owens was her sister-in-law’s best friend. Soledad O’Brien serves as an executive producer. In an interview with Variety, Gandbhir said that she decided to put the focus of the film on the police footage instead of having it contain interviews with people impacted by the incident because it gave the story more immediacy.
