Netflix’s The Perfect Neighbor: Docs Inspiring Change, Social Justice

“Had we not gone forth with the film and the Standing in the Gap Fund, she would have been just another dead Black person.”

These chilling words were uttered to me recently by Pamela Dias, the mother of Ajike “AJ” Owens, about her daughter. Viewers of the Netflix social-justice sensation The Perfect Neighbor will know Dias from the last few scenes of the film, when she emerges from the tragic haze as the hero who will try to ensure meaning from her daughter’s death in a senseless Stand Your Ground killing.

These are dark times for documentaries; only the naive would deny it. Global streamers have shown timidity about politically charged or even politically adjacent material — which means complex, relevant films don’t get financed, bought or, most importantly, seen. The number of ar