{"id":1186868,"date":"2026-03-19T06:20:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T13:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/?p=1186868"},"modified":"2026-03-20T08:57:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T15:57:34","slug":"american-doctor-cph-dox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/american-doctor-cph-dox\/","title":{"rendered":"American Doctor Tries to Tell a Real, Uncensored Story of Atrocities in Gaza: ‘It Is America\u2019s War’"},"content":{"rendered":"

To direct her first feature documentary, American Doctor<\/em> director Poh Si Teng quit her job and emptied the entirety of her bank account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was 2024 and Teng, a former documentary commissioner for Al Jazeera English<\/em> and a New York Times <\/em>journalist, was fed up with the Israel-Hamas War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was very difficult to see people that I respected in journalism and Al Jazeera <\/em>being targeted and executed,\u201d Teng said during a Q&A in Copenhagen Tuesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The director was in Denmark to screenAmerican Doctor<\/em> at the\u00a023rd edition\u00a0of the\u00a0Copenhagen\u00a0International\u00a0Documentary Film Festival\u00a0(CPH:DOX)<\/a>. The film premiered at Sundance.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA year into the genocide, I didn\u2019t have any more words, and I didn\u2019t want to talk to anyone,\u201d Teng said while speaking with TIFF programmer Thom Powers at CPH:DOX\u2019s Kunsthal Charlottenborg. \u201cI was very angry. And then came despair. I didn\u2019t know what to do with those emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Teng, the producer of the Oscar-nominated St. Louis Superman<\/em> and Emmy Award\u2013winning executive producer of Patrice: The Movie<\/em>, saw Dr. Mark Perlmutter on TV. The Jewish American physician was speaking to a reporter about his recent trips to Gaza, where he volunteered his services at a local hospital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teng was impressed with not only Dr. Perlmutter\u2019s work in Palestine but also his candid response to a question about Israeli politics and ceasefire pledges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018There is no ceasefire,\u2019\u201d Teng recalled. \u201cI was like, \u2018Who is this guy?\u2019 So, I looked him up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teng met Dr. Perlmutter in New York City. He introduced her to fellow physicians, Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a Palestinian-American, and Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a non-practicing Zoroastrian American. Together all three doctors were risking everything to save lives in Gaza. Teng knew immediately that she had to make a documentary about the trio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor years, I believed the industry didn\u2019t need another (doc) director,\u201d Teng told Powers. But as a citizen of the United States, she felt compelled to make the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to bring this reality home to American audiences.\u201d Teng said. \u201cThis is not just Israel\u2019s war on Gaza. It is America\u2019s war, with billions of dollars of American weapons being used to kill children and the innocent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poh Si Teng on Making American Doctor<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Production on the 93-minute doc began in December 2024. Initially Dr. Perlmutter planned on getting Teng into Gaza as a scrub nurse, but the director knew that wouldn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Mark, the Israelis control the border. Anybody who does a cursory search in my name will know that I\u2019m not a scrub nurse,\u2019\u201d Teng said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the director hired two local Palestinian cinematographers, Arthur Nazaryan and Ramzy Haddad, and worked remotely with the doctors as they volunteered in Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of the Strip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey shoot people with cameras there,\u201d Teng said. \u201cSo, it is such a big ask to say, \u2018Can you film here with these doctors?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nazaryan and Haddad asked Teng: \u201cPlease bring the story back to the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

American Doctor<\/em> begins with Dr. Perlmutter showing Teng photographs of Palestinian children who have been killed. Teng isn\u2019t sure if she should include the brutal photos in a film. She is concerned about protecting the dignity of the children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You’re not dignifying them unless you let their memory, their bodies, tell the story of this trauma, of this genocide,\u201d Dr. Perlmutter tells Teng in the film. \u201cYou’re not doing them a service by not showing them. This is what my tax dollars did. That’s what your tax dollars did… You pixelate [the photos], that’s journalistic malpractice.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

American Doctor<\/em> also shows the physicians forced to decide who they can try to save from among an overwhelming number of patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the film, the doctors\u2019 harrowing work treating open wounds and severed limbs is intermixed with their efforts to communicate with the Western media about the unspeakable brutality happening in Gaza due to Israel\u2019s air strikes. It\u2019s a futile effort often met with indifference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At an American Doctor<\/em> Q&A at Sundance, Dr. Ahmad admitted that he was initially skeptical of Poh\u2019s efforts. \u201cI said, \u2018I really hope it\u2019s worth all of your time and effort and the entire team that put this together.\u2019 I just felt like people would not be interested in hearing this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While American Doctor<\/em> has not yet secured a U.S. distributor, Teng said that she hopes Americans eventually get a chance to see it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cIf they see it, they would not be okay with this,\u201d Teng said. \u201cNo one would be okay with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can read more of our film festival coverage here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Main image: <\/em>American Doctor, courtest of CPH: DOX.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To direct her first feature documentary, American Doctor director Poh Si Teng quit her job and emptied the entirety of","protected":false},"author":1952,"featured_media":1186870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_comments":false,"cm_data":"","cpt_newsletter_id":0,"tpd_coauthor":[],"tpd_feed_delay":{"delay_type":"default"},"is_tpd_lists_single_post":false,"tpd_featured_posts_arr":"","tpd_franchise_content":"","hide_featured_img_single_post":false,"msn_featured_video":[],"_msn_custom_title":"","tpd_featured_video":[],"tpd_sponsored_post_logo":"","tpd_sponsored_post_logo_link":"","tpd_sponsored_post_logo_width":0,"tpd_sponsored_enable_nofollow":true,"tpd_disable_incontent_ads":false,"tpd_disable_right_rail_ads":false,"tpd_disable_after_content_ads":false,"tpd_disable_header_ads":false,"tpd_disable_sticky_footer_ads":false,"tpd_disable_video_ads":false,"tpd_disable_outbrain":false,"tpd_affiliate_disclaimer":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[41495,42077],"tags":[],"coauthor":[],"feeds":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1186868","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-film-festivals","8":"category-no-msn"},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/americandoctor3-428x241.jpg","fimg_url_thumb":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/americandoctor3-428x241.jpg","fimg_url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/americandoctor3-788x444.jpg","author_name":"Addie Morfoot","author_avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e278bb4e2088c0e730b25cd27db047f4118d2cbd84f171ae89f46a8a709fb366?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/author\/addie-morfoot\/","coauthors":[],"primary_category":{"term_id":41495,"name":"Film Festivals","slug":"film-festivals","taxonomy":"category","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/category\/film-festivals\/"},"featured_img_medium":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/americandoctor3-788x444.jpg","post_categories":["Film Festivals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1952"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1186868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1186870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1186868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1186868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1186868"},{"taxonomy":"coauthor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthor?post=1186868"},{"taxonomy":"feeds","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feeds?post=1186868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}