In a new documentary on Gaza, three humanitarian physicians from the United States navigate the horrors of genocide as they struggle to treat civilians in a buckling, under-resourced hospital in Khan Younis.
Screening this week at the Angelika Film Center in Manhattan, journalist Poh Si Teng’s debut feature documentary American Doctor (2026) uses the physicians’ accounts as indisputable evidence of the cruelty inflicted on Gaza.
Urgently produced in one year with on-the-ground footage by the Gaza cinematography company Alef Multimedia, American Doctor premiered at the Sundance Film Festival only weeks after its completion, and has since been acquired by Watermelon Pictures for distribution.
The documentary follows Mark Perlmutter, a Jewish American orthopedic surgeon, and Zoroastrian trauma surgeon Feroze Sidhwa during and after their humanitarian aid trips to the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. It also features Chicago-based emergency physician and human rights advocate Thaer Ahmad, whom Israel has repeatedly denied entry into Gaza for aid brigades since 2024 due to his Palestinian heritage.
