Why This Heartbreaking Scene Was Cut From ‘The Perfect Neighbor,’ According to the Director

By now, you will have probably seen, or at least heard of, The Perfect Neighbor documentary on Netflix. The film tells the tragic real-life story of how Ajike ‘AJ’ Owens was shot and killed by her neighbor, Susan Lorincz.

In the documentary, which predominantly uses body camera footage captured by police, we see and hear the events that lead up to Owens’ murder, as well as the impact it had on her loved ones and the local community.

But, amidst the many, many emotional scenes in the film—which viewers have taken to social media to talk about in droves—there was one clip that was cut. Now, director Geeta Gandbhir has told Decider details of the scene and why it was left out of The Perfect Neighbor.

“We wanted the audience to feel the tension, the chaos,” Gandbhir said while discussing what did make the cut, pointing to one scene which viewers have described as being the most difficult to watch. That being the moment Owens’ children and family find out she has passed away. But, Gandbhir went on, “There’s footage that’s even more challenging to see.”

Gandbhir explained that there’s police body camera footage of those on the scene “trying to revive Ajike,” but she and the production team chose not to include this. “We didn’t want it to feel exploitative,” she said. “We wanted to show just enough so that the audience could be immersed in the moment—how terrifying it was, how terrible it was.”

Although they opted not to include this heartbreaking scene, Gandbhir pointed out that they still “chose to put in some of the hardest things to see” after speaking with Owens’ mother, Pamela Dias.

“I talked to her about it,” the director said, recalling that she asked Dias how she felt about putting “some really challenging stuff” into the documentary. “She was like, ‘Put it in. Everybody needs to see what happened’,” Gandbhir added.

The Perfect Neighbor is available to stream on Netflix now.

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