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It's a rainy day in Brooklyn, but it sure felt like the sun was shining—guess that's just the effect that Geeta Gandbhir has on those around her! Geeta is having a big year—she just became the first director ever nominated for both documentary feature and a documentary short Oscars in the same year… the first woman, and woman of color with two same year directing noms, challenging the long-standing status of Walt Disney who pulled that feat off in the animated categories decades ago. But we're talkin' docs here and Geeta made two incredible entries last year with the feature, THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR for Netflix, and the short THE DEVIL IS BUSY for HBO. Keith was bowled-over by THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR (produced by Episode 55 guest Alisa Payne) and Geeta shares plenty of behind the scenes details on this singular film. How does a community tragedy in Ocala, Florida become an innovative all-archival film built almost entirely from police bodycam footage? Start with a two-year neighborhood dispute, collect 30 hours of unsynced video, and rely on the talents of editor, Viridiana Lieberman, to figure out a new grammar for 21st-century archival storytelling. No big deal, it just had Keith bawling like a baby, on his second watch, on a plane ride to NYC. No. Big. Deal.
We deep-dive, into a moment when a chance encounter with Spike Lee yields a gig on MALCOLM X, sound-room time on Robert Altman's SHORT CUTS, and a mentorship with Sam Pollard that took her from animated to scripted to documentary by way of WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE. There's real advice here for editors turning directors (know every job on set), directors and editors (get a referee), and anyone telling a story about a community that isn't theirs. We dig into the pending merger, the squeeze on buyers, and why going independent was the only way THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR could exist.
Plus: her next project on Whoopi Goldberg, the comic books and the spaghetti-less western, SHOLAY that got her here, and a mention of Harry Belafonte, because why not? We bond over DO THE RIGHT THING and she recommends LA HAINE while we successfully avoid the rain, posting-up on Geeta's Prospect Lefferts Gardens stoop to round out our speed round.
Keith loved this walk, and not just because Geeta is EP'ing his new short doc, MY FIRE ESCAPE (produced by Alisa!). Thank you, Geeta!
DISCUSSION LINKS:
THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR (2025) | THE DEVIL IS BUSY (2024) | DO THE RIGHT THING (1989) | MALCOLM X (1992) | SHORT CUTS (1993) | SUMMER OF SAM (1999) | WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS (2006) | SHOLAY (1975) | SALAAM BOMBAY! (1988) | LA HAINE (1995) | UNTITLED WHOOPI GOLDBERG DOCUMENTARY (TBD)
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Rain in Flatbush, meet Prospect Lefferts Gardens 01:00 Meeting Geeta and how Doc Walks began 02:00 Two Oscar nominations in one year 03:00 Inside the awards campaign 04:00 Sundance 2025 and the festival run 07:00 What a nomination does for viewership 08:00 THE DEVIL IS BUSY and the long short-film rollout 10:00 How THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR began: Ajike Owens 12:00 Organizing in Ocala, and the stand-your-ground fear 13:00 Keith on the Sundance buzz and what the film is 16:00 Bodycams as A-roll 17:00 From media liaison to 30 hours of footage 19:00 A film about patterns that plays like horror 22:00 Why the police never saw Susan as a threat 23:00 When it became a documentary 26:00 Editing with Viridiana Lieberman and staying inside the footage 28:00 B-roll interstitials as the film's style 30:00 Found footage and the surveillance state 31:00 DO THE RIGHT THING as a touchstone 33:00 Stalking Spike Lee and landing on MALCOLM X 36:00 SUMMER OF SAM and hanging up on Spike 37:00 The scripted years: Merchant Ivory and SHORT CUTS 39:00 Sam Pollard and the turn to documentary 40:00 WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE 41:00 What Sam Pollard is like as a mentor 43:00 From editor to director to producer 45:00 Advice for editors who want to direct 47:00 Advice for directors working with new editors 48:00 Storytelling as human connection, and doing it ethically 50:00 Representation and power on your team 53:00 Where the industry is headed: the merger 56:00 The executives on the inside 57:00 A professor's lesson: artists walk the other side of the street 59:00 Going independent with THE PERFECT NEIGHBOR 61:00 The Whoopi Goldberg documentary 64:00 Gateway films: comic books, SHOLAY, DO THE RIGHT THING 66:00 SALAAM BOMBAY! and LA HAINE 68:00 Final thought: lead with the human story 70:00 Goodbye from the stoop
