A Conversation on ICE Detention Centers and Their Impact: Insights from ‘The Perfect Neighbor’ Team at the Independent Spirit Awards
The documentary *The Perfect Neighbor,* directed by Geeta Gandbhir, won the award for Best Documentary at the 2026 Independent Spirit Awards held on Sunday. This accolade was celebrated by Gandbhir and her team of producers, including Alisa Payne, Nikon Kwantu, and Sam Bisbee.
Backstage, Gandbhir elaborated on her impactful political speech, addressing recent injustices tied to ICE activities during the Trump administration. “What the U.S. and what ICE are doing in the streets, kidnapping our neighbors and essentially putting them in camps, is similar to concentration camps,” she stated. “I am the proud child of immigrants, as is Alisa Payne and basically anyone else who is not indigenous to this country. We believe immigrants are the foundation of this country. We are the American Dream and we’re not going anywhere.”
The Netflix documentary highlights a tragic crime that occurred in Ocala, Florida, in 2023, where 35-year-old Ajike Owens, a mother of four, was fatally shot by her neighbor, 58-year-old Susan Lorincz. Lorincz later attempted to use Florida’s controversial stand your ground law as part of her defense.
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Gandbhir employs police body cam and dash cam footage to narrate the events. In light of recent protest-related deaths in Minnesota, she emphasized the significance of such footage in the pursuit of accountability. “The importance of body camera footage is tantamount. It’s so critical because the counter narratives that are happening again at a government level and the lack of accountability and freedom to twist the truth is prevalent,” she said. “Even though body camera footage can be a form of surveillance for vulnerable communities of color, it has also been used to criminalize it, and we’ve seen it happen in Minneapolis with multiple murders.”
Kwantu discussed the challenge of fairly representing the complex narratives involved in the project. “The body camera footage, it’s really interesting because when we got this footage, there was so much of it. And in going through it, we really wanted to be able to tell the story in its truest form. We had over 30 hours of footage and we had to condense that into 96 minutes while still being able to let you decide what the truth actually is,” he explained. “We talk about this all the time—we could have had interviews, we could have directed people to a perspective, but we wanted Ajike [Owens], Susan Lorincz, and the community to tell their story in their words.”
As the documentary aims for recognition at the 2026 Oscars, Gandbhir highlighted its significance. “It’s important to note that, oftentimes, when people of color are killed in this manner, they are often criminalized. We felt the use of body cam footage in [our film] was undeniable. You see the community before, a multiracial, multi-generational community, and then you see the actions of this one violent outlier who changed the neighborhood. You saw this beautiful young mother being taken from four children, and you cannot ignore it. It’s undeniable what happened, even though people try to deny it.”
