by Imtiaz Popat
American Doctor is a new 2026 documentary film directed by Poh Si Teng. The film follows three American doctors of diverse backgrounds who travel to Gaza to provide medical aid during the conflict. We are invited to witness their Journey.
It premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2026. It was also featured at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) recently and has been released in the United States on August 14, 2026, by Watermelon Pictures.
The film follows three American doctors of different backgrounds. Dr. Mark Perlmutter is a Jewish American orthopedic surgeon from North Carolina; Dr. Thaer Ahmad is a Palestinian American emergency physician from Chicago; and Dr. Feroze Sidhwa is a trauma surgeon from California of Pakistani Parsi heritage.The three doctors operated primarily out of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis during two visits to Gaza, before and after the 2025 ceasefire.
This a documentary film with the feal of it is dramatic. In an opening scene, Perlmutter demands that Teng show an unblurred photograph of babies killed in a missile strike, arguing that blurring the images would obscure the reality of events.
The film documents the doctors’ work in operating rooms and hospital corridors, their media appearances upon returning to the United States, and the death threats some received as a result of their public advocacy.
The film also documents the particular difficulty Ahmad faced gaining entry to Gaza due to his Palestinian heritage, despite holding the same American credentials as his colleagues. We also see how this journey affects is family relationship.
We also see the how the three doctors are affected by what they see and the relationships they build during their time in Gaza. We also see how their faith affects the work they do. This experience will stay with them and long time.
Poh Si Teng is a Malaysia-born, New York-based journalist and filmmaker. She previously worked as a documentary commissioner for Al Jazeera English, a grants director at the International Documentary Association, and a journalist for the New York Times and ABC News. She produced St. Louis Superman and Patrice: The Movie.
Teng described her decision to make the film as personal desperation. “A year into the genocide, I didn’t have any more words. I was very angry. And then came despair,” she said at CPH:DOX in March 2026. She quit her job as a creative executive at ABC and spent approximately $150,000 of her personal savings to begin production, later raising nearly $200,000 in donations during fundraising trips to Malaysia.[8] Production ran from December 2024 to December 2025.[8] This film marks her feature directorial debut.
The film’s two Gaza-based cinematographers, Ibrahim Al Otla and Christopher Renteria, filmed embedded with the doctors while themselves facing food shortages and the threat of bombardment. They uploaded footage daily via a balcony at Nasser Hospital that was later destroyed in an Israeli strike that killed 22 people including journalists and medical worke
The production team includes producers Kirstine Barfod (known for The Cave) and Reem Haddad, with executive producers Simon Kilmurry and Hamza Ali. The film features music by composer Suad Bushnaq.
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