SYNOPSIS:

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