Black women across the United States are doing what they have always done in moments of moral urgency — organizing, gathering, and turning grief into action. Ahead of the Academy Awards, a powerful coalition of Black women leaders has mobilized around The Perfect Neighbor, an Oscar-nominated documentary that tells the story of Ajike “AJ” Owens, a Black mother fatally shot by her white neighbor in Ocala, Florida, on June 2, 2023. What began as community watch parties has grown into something far more significant: a nationwide movement demanding justice, accountability, and systemic change.
Led by Win With Black Women (WWBW) in partnership with the Standing in the Gap Fund, the initiative has already reached a major milestone — 100 community watch parties hosted across the country. The screenings range from intimate living room discussions among friends and family to larger gatherings organized by community leaders, churches, and civic groups, creating space for honest, sustained conversations about racial violence and the laws that enable it.
What The Perfect Neighbor Documents and Why It Matters
The Perfect Neighbor is not an easy film to watch — and that is precisely the point. Directed by Geeta Gandbhir and produced by Black women including Alisa Payne and Takema Robinson, the documentary uses real footage to revisit the circumstances of Owens’ death, placing viewers directly inside a tragedy that might otherwise have faded from public consciousness. The film has earned more than 24 award nominations, including its Academy Award nod, and is currently available for streaming on Netflix.
The shooting took place when Susan Louise Lorincz, a white neighbor, shot and killed Owens through a closed door. The case immediately drew attention to Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law, which has long been criticized as a framework that disproportionately endangers Black lives. By centering Owens’ story with specificity and care, the documentary ensures that she is remembered not as a statistic but as a full, irreplaceable human being — a mother whose loss sent shockwaves through her family and her community.
Win With Black Women Turns Watch Parties Into a Call to Action
Win With Black Women is not a passive organization, and these screenings are not passive events. WWBW — an intergenerational network of hundreds of thousands of Black women leaders spanning business, politics, culture, and advocacy — has consistently used its platform since Owens’ 2023 murder to push for justice, support the Owens family, and keep the broader issues her story raises in the public eye. The 100 watch parties are the latest expression of that sustained commitment.
Jotaka Eaddy, founder of Win With Black Women and a 2026 Women of Power Luminary Award recipient, articulated the deeper purpose behind the screenings with characteristic clarity. “Black women have always organized in moments when the nation’s conscience is being tested. These community screenings are about more than a documentary,” she said. “They are about remembrance, about justice for AJ, and about making sure that our communities are informed, engaged, and prepared to take action — from voting to policy change. When Black women gather, conversation becomes a movement.” That final line is not rhetoric — it is a description of exactly what is happening across the country right now.
The Standing in the Gap Fund and Its Role in AJ Owens’ Legacy
The Standing in the Gap Fund carries a significance that predates the documentary’s rise to public prominence. Founded in 2023 in honor of Owens and others lost to racial violence, the fund was created before The Perfect Neighbor became widely known — a fact that underscores how deeply rooted its mission is in grassroots community response rather than awards season timing. Now serving as the lead organization for the film’s impact campaign, the fund has found a powerful vehicle in the documentary for advancing conversations that matter far beyond any film festival circuit.
The partnership between WWBW and the Standing in the Gap Fund reflects a broader truth about how durable social movements are built. They are not built around moments — they are built around people, relationships, and sustained commitment to a cause that does not disappear when cameras move on. Together, these two organizations are using The Perfect Neighbor not as an end point but as a starting point, channeling the emotional power of Owens’ story into practical, civic action.
AJ Owens’ Mother Speaks Out — Her Hope for What These Screenings Achieve
At the center of everything — the watch parties, the advocacy, the award nominations — is a family that has been living with an unimaginable loss for nearly three years. Pamela Dias, Owens’ mother, has been vocal throughout this period about what she hopes this documentary and the conversations surrounding it will actually accomplish. Her words carry a weight that no policy brief or press release can replicate.
“Every time people gather to watch this film and talk about Ajike, they are honoring her life and helping ensure her story continues to matter,” Dias said. “My hope is that people leave these conversations not just moved, but committed — to voting, to speaking up, and to making sure other families never have to experience what ours has.” That appeal — grounded in grief but oriented toward the future — is the moral heartbeat of everything Win With Black Women is doing with these screenings. It is a reminder that behind every movement for justice is a mother, a family, a community that simply wants the world to be safer than it was.
Why This Moment Is Bigger Than the Oscars
The timing of these screenings around the Academy Awards is deliberate, but the movement itself is not contingent on any film industry outcome. As WWBW stated plainly in its own announcement, “This moment is about more than awards. It’s about amplification, narrative power, and justice for AJ.” The Oscar nomination gives the documentary a platform and a news hook, but the organizing that surrounds it is driven by something far more enduring than awards season momentum.
What Black women leaders are building through these 100 watch parties and counting is a model for how communities can transform art into advocacy — how a documentary on Netflix can become a catalyst for voter registration, policy conversations, and civic engagement at the neighborhood level. For those who have always believed that storytelling is one of the most powerful tools for social change, the movement surrounding The Perfect Neighbor is exactly the kind of proof that belief demands. The screenings continue, the conversations grow, and AJ Owens’ name is being said in living rooms, churches, and community centers across the country. That, ultimately, is what justice in motion looks like.