Overview
- Director Poh Si Teng follows three American volunteer physicians — Dr. Thaer Ahmad, Dr. Mark Perlmutter, and Dr. Feroze Sidwa — as they provide emergency care in Gaza and return to U.S. stages to speak about what they saw.
- The documentary is now screening in U.S. cities with Teng and the doctors appearing for onstage Q&A events to discuss frontline medicine, advocacy and the film’s production choices.
- The film deliberately shows graphic images of dead and wounded patients; Perlmutter urged the director not to blur certain scenes so the footage would document the scale of civilian harm.
- American Doctor intercuts hospital footage with intimate scenes of the doctors’ family, faith and diaspora life and records the subjects visiting congressional offices and testifying at international forums.
- The film highlights practical barriers to aid and witnessing, including repeated Israeli border denials that blocked Dr. Thaer Ahmad from entering Gaza, and it foregrounds the targeting of journalists that motivated Teng to make the film.