The beginning of the calendar year is a special time in the West, as every major organisation schedules its annual awards ceremony to honour the work of the previous year. 2026 is a special year for director Geeta Gandbhir as she is a first-time Oscar nominee in two categories: Best Documentary Feature Film for The Perfect Neighbor and Best Documentary Short for The Devil is Busy. The former, which is streaming on Netflix, is a series of body cam footage and CCTV footage stitched together to tell the story of Ajike Owens, a mother of four, who was shot to death by her neighbour. Meanwhile, the latter, which is streaming on JioHotstar, follows a day in the life of the security head of a women's healthcare clinic, which is continuously hounded by anti-abortion protestors.
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What was your reaction to being nominated for two Oscars in the same year?
My mind was blown that morning. Just being shortlisted seemed improbable. But to then have both of them nominated was really meaningful. It is such a huge honour, because it is a community of my peers who decide who gets nominated. These are the people whom I admire, these are my colleagues, these are my friends, all of whom fight the same fight as I do. So this means the world.
Beyond that, it provides a platform for the issues both films are centred on, and it offers an opportunity to make an impact beyond the awards, which is the ultimate goal.
What makes the documentary format cinematic?
Documentary storytelling and filmmaking are no different from scripted storytelling or filmmaking in how they tell a story. We are telling the life stories of real people in the film. But the stories of the lives of real people are stranger than fiction, and you cannot make them up. It's more about the craft of the film. So, a documentary can be crafted as immersive, as propulsive, as compelling as a scripted film.
What was interesting about The Perfect Neighbor is that our editor, Viridiana Lieberman, was nominated for the Critics' Choice documentary award, but she was up against nominees from scripted projects like Sinners or F1. She has now broken a glass ceiling for documentaries. When nominations came in, they considered it and wrote her in.
But in the case of documentaries, you have real stories, with a fixed chronology of events, where the facts are laid out. How do you work around that restriction?
It completely depends on the film and what its story calls for. You certainly want the audience to get to know the participants and care about them. That requires some worldbuilding, much like you would for a scripted film. Moreover, the focus is on the story's subject. Is the story about money? Or is it about something else? So when you start asking those questions while making a film, you realise there is no single method for creating a project; you have to treat each one differently.
The Perfect Neighbor speaks about a particular law in the USA, widely known as the Stand Your Ground laws. Why was that the subject for the film?
I did not want to make a film about Stand Your Ground laws, but this was part of the case of Ajike Owens, a family friend. When she passed away, the team at Message Pictures, including my husband, Nikon Kwantu, a producer on this film, immediately sought media attention for this case because we knew that without it, cases like this can often be swept under the rug. The perpetrator of the shooting, Susan Lorincz, wasn't immediately arrested because of these laws, which exist in 38 states in the USA. While the exact way this law is implemented varies by state, if a person perceives they are in danger, they may use deadly force without a duty to retreat, regardless of where they are.
This perception leads to the inclusion of racism in decision-making when a person is judging the danger. This emboldens people to use deadly force against people of colour, and then claim self-defence later.
While The Perfect Neighbor addresses an important issue, one element of the USA's culture that it shares with The Devil is Busy is the role of faith in the lives of the people involved. Could you expound on the role that faith played?
In The Devil is Busy, Tracii, the security guard of the women's healthcare clinic, whom we follow throughout, is as deeply Christian as the men protesting against abortion outside that clinic. But she realises that abortion is a fundamental human right. Religion here in the US and around the world has been weaponised against women by restricting us and denying us fundamental rights. It was interesting to see a woman hold strong faith while believing in women's right to seek basic help.
While The Devil is Busy was shot in real time, The Perfect Neighbor is a compilation of body cam footage and CCTV footage. Since the subject is someone you know, how was it watching those while making the film?
It was very emotional, because we had 30 hours of footage on hand. The only way I know how to support the family is using my skills as a filmmaker. I did not want to go back and retraumatise the community by asking them to talk about it again. So I made the decision of having to place my trust in the audience while making a film out of existing footage. But while making it, there was this pipe dream I had, where I wanted to help support Ajike's children in a bigger way, by using the money I get after selling the film.