Exclusive: Director Geeta Gandbhir Talks On Her Oscar Nominated Films, The Perfect Neighbor And The Devil Is Busy
Among the 2026 Academy Award nominees for Best Documentary is The Perfect Neighbor, directed by Geeta Gandbhir. It’s about a shooting incident on June 2, 2023 where a white female, Susan Louise Lorincz, fatally shot Ajike Owens, her black female neighbor, in Ocala, Florida.
The film is told in chronological order with limited narration, mostly using pre-existing police footage such as bodycams, and follows both the lead-up to the killing, the incident itself and its aftermath, from the neighborhood disputes eventually escalating into the killing to Lorincz's conviction for manslaughter, among other charges. As the killing itself did, the film notably questions the systemic bias in how Florida's stand-your-ground laws are applied.
Gandbhir is also Oscar Nominated for Best Documentary Short for The Devil Is Busy, which she co-directed with Christalyn Hampton, The Devil Is Busy is a daylong journey with Tracii, the determined head of security at a women's healthcare clinic in Atlanta, Georgia. She works to ensure the safety of women seeking abortions in the face of new restrictions and persistent protests. Following the routines of the staff who continue to provide a range of medical services, including preventive screenings, checkups, and reproductive healthcare, in an environment where clinics often face daily threats of danger.
As a Director, credits include the series "Born in Synanon" for Paramount, "Eyes on the Prize" for HBO, "Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power," which was nominated for the 2022 Critics Choice Award, won a 2023 SIMA Award, and is nominated for two 2023 Emmys. She directed and show ran the series "Black and Missing" for HBO which won a 2022 NAACP Award for Best Directing, a 2022 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Series, a 2022 ATAS Honors Award, and a Cinema Eye Honors for Best Series. She directed the film "Apart," with Rudy Valdez, for HBOMax, which was nominated for an NAACP Award and won a 2022 Emmy Award. Her short film from 2020, "Call Center Blues," with Topic Studios was shortlisted for the 2021 Academy Awards. She directed an episode "The Asian Americans" for PBS, which won the 2021 Peabody Award. Additional directing credits include the six-part series "Why We Hate" for Discovery, and "I Am Evidence" for HBO which won a 2019 Emmy, DuPont Award, and ATAS Award.
Her film "Armed with Faith" for PBS also won a 2019 News and Documentary Emmy, an episode of the Netflix series "The Rapture," focusing on rap artist Rapsody, "Prison Dogs," which she co-directed with Perri Peltz, and "A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers," for PBS. She also played a co-director and co-producer role in the "A Conversation on Race" series in collaboration with The New York Times Op-Docs. This series earned recognition, including an Online Journalism Award for Online Commentary, an AFI Documentary Film Festival Audience Award for Best Short, and a MacArthur Grant. She also co-produced the HBO film "The Sentence," directed by Rudy Valdez, which received a 2019 Primetime Emmy.
In her role as an Editor, her films have garnered two Emmy Awards, four Peabody Awards, and one Academy Award
Blackfilmandtv.com's Wilson Morales talks to director Geeta Gandbhir about her documentary The Perfect Neighnor and documentary short The Devil Is Busy, which she received Oscar Nominations for both