For documentary filmmaker Poh Si Teng, American Doctor was a response to the media silence that followed Israel’s airstrikes on and invasion of Gaza beginning on October 7, 2023. A former journalist who completed work for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Al Jazeera English, she was outraged by the lack of sufficient coverage of Israel’s subsequent genocide of the Palestinians by those she once considered her peers.
“There was this pin-drop silence when it came to talking about Gazan journalists that were executed and being killed, some of whom were colleagues at Al Jazeera, whom I really respected,” Teng says in our interview following American Doctor’s North American theatrical release.
She recalls being particularly affected by the targeted murder of Samer Abu Daqqa, a video journalist at Al Jazeera who was on assignment in Khan Younis (a city in southern Gaza) when an Israeli drone strike killed him and his crew on December 15, 2023. Tragically, Abu Daqqa bled to death at the scene, as Israeli military prohibited paramedics from accessing the area.
“Whenever journalists are taken in Russia or killed in Ukraine, there’s always this uproar, but when it came to Samer Abu Daqqa and so many other journalists — nothing,” Teng says. “American Doctor was born out of real frustration, like ‘Why is no one saying anything?’ I knew why — it was a rhetorical question — but I thought this was the time. Instead of producing, commissioning, or executive producing, maybe I should direct. Maybe, in the 20-plus years of my career, there’s now something I really want to say.”
Indeed, prior to sitting in the director’s seat, Teng “held different positions in the entire documentary ecosystem.” She was a cameraperson for The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse, a documentary commissioner at Al Jazeera English, and helped raise production funds for indie docs as a grants director. She made her directorial debut in 2008 with the documentary short Pecah Lobang, while American Doctor marks her first directorial feature.
The doc follows three physicians from the United States — Dr. Thaer Ahmad, Dr. Mark Perlmutter, and Dr. Feroze Sidhwa — as they provide (or, in some cases, attempt to provide) medical aid in Gaza during the 2025 ceasefire. In addition to their medical efforts, the doctors also engage in media appearances, conferences with advocacy groups, and meetings with high-level political figures – to varying degrees of success. Teng doesn’t just present the violence devastating the Palestinian people (which continues to this day), but also sheds light on the dangerous media rhetoric and bias used in the coverage (or, more correctly, lack thereof) of Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people.
Like so many people who were inspired to act and advocate on behalf of the lost and endangered Palestinian lives, Teng wasn’t necessarily sure where to start. She believed in the power of documentaries and film in general, but, considering the vastness of the subject, didn’t completely know what story she wanted to tell. “There were also amazing films coming out of Gaza by Gazan filmmakers,” she says. “What would a contribution from someone situated and sitting in the United States look like? What can I do differently?”
A few months after the genocide began, in early-2024, Teng quit her full-time job to spend time with political artists and her family in India. It wasn’t until the autumn of 2024 that she saw a clip of Dr. Perlmutter responding to a reporter’s question about a lack of a ceasefire. “Without skipping a beat, he says, ‘There’s no ceasefire because politicians are expletive [sic] to lobby groups.’ Because of the deafening silence and people talking around things, at least in the circles I was in, it was just so clarifying and so great to hear.”
Teng met with Dr. Perlmutter a few days later in New York. Later on, he introduced her to Dr. Ahmad and Dr. Sidhwa (both of whom are also present in our interview). Production on American Doctor began soon after by Christmas 2024 and completed by Christmas 2025.
Teng says, “As a filmmaker, when you meet somebody whom you can’t stop listening to and you’re so engrossed with what they say, and they’re so charismatic and so charming and you want to be in their world, that’s incredible. When you meet three, that’s a privilege that should not be wasted.”
For Dr. Ahmad and Dr. Sidhwa, however, Teng’s proposal of a documentary centred on them wasn’t without reservations at first. Not because they were reluctant to be part of it, but more so because, after a year of witnessing Palestinians being killed, starved, and otherwise put into inhumane situations while the American government largely stood by, watched, and even funded the genocide, they thought it would be a futile project.
“One thing I had in the back of my mind was, ‘I hope she’s not going to be wasting her time, wasting her money, and all the efforts that are going to be forward’ — because this is such a difficult subject to get out in the open,” says Dr. Ahmad. “As we got to continue to work together, it was one of the few times where I was actually very concerned about the ramifications for her. But I think it’s a testament to trusting her and then wanting her to get more of the story and, at the same time, realizing the cost of what that meant.”
Dr. Sidhwa adds, “For me, it was similar. I told Poh, ‘You’re welcome to follow me around with a camera, but nobody’s going to care about a documentary about Gaza. There’s a million of them, and it hasn’t changed anything.’ But she believed in herself, so I’m glad I was wrong.”
The one condition the doctors had for Teng in agreeing to participate in the documentary was a display of the full truth — something many media in the West lacked (and still are lacking). “What I didn’t want was a movie that tried to absolve the United States of its major and crucial role in this,” says Dr. Sidhwa. “In the first conversation I had with Poh, it was very clear that she understood the importance of this movie was the influence it could have on Americans. It also has to be educational, and the educational aspect of it is: look at what you’re responsible for, look at what your tax dollars are doing, look at what your government spends its time doing.”
Knowing what to show — and, more importantly, how much — proved, for Teng, to be one of the more challenging aspects of making the documentary. She recalls leaning on her journalistic experience and, in this regard, walking on a sort of tightrope between the legal and ethical aspects of knowing what or what not to censor, as well as when.
The powerful opening scene, which has since resonated with audiences who have seen the film, shows Dr. Perlmutter wanting to show images on his tablet to Teng (and, by extension, the viewers) of Palestinian babies that were killed by Israeli airstrikes. For a moment, the camera pans away and we hear an impassioned plea from the doctor about the need for the audience to see the images uncensored. To blur the images, he says in the film, would be “journalistic malpractice.”
“Really, it was a dilemma,” Teng says of that moment with Dr. Perlmutter in the film. On one hand, she grew up in Malaysia and was exposed to violent images of the Vietnam War and the genocide in Bosnia in 1992. On the other hand, she completed a formal education in journalism in the United States and learned about “broadcasting thresholds” in her work in Western media. Regarding her upbringing and her academic and professional experiences, “They were coming in conflict, and here you have this doctor who’s really upset with me. That was a moment of great discomfort.”
She adds, “But as any filmmaker knows, when you have a deep discomfort, it is an opportunity for growth and an amazing exploration of who you are as an artist and as a person, and so the instinct is to go towards it.”
Like Teng, Dr. Ahmad has been on a similar journey of personal growth and professional expansion. In American Doctor, Dr. Ahmad’s storyline follows his advocacy on United States soil while he applies for entry into Gaza in order to, like Dr. Perlmutter and Dr. Sidhwa, provide medical aid on the ground. However, because of his Palestinian heritage, the Israeli government consistently rejects his applications. (“I’ve been rejected five times — most recently, July 29,” he says.)
He reveals that he has been able to enter the West Bank and work in the hospitals there, but emphasizes that the policy that prohibits his entering Gaza is the same that enables the “ethnic cleansing, displacement, and separation of the peoples” in all of Palestine. “Gaza has become this island, all these other Palestinians are totally blocked off from it,” he says. “People in Hebron are having a very tough time getting to the people in Jenin, and the people in Jenin are never able to visit the people in Jerusalem. That’s the sort of scattered-ness and ethnic cleansing that’s at play.”
When asked if he, in his early medical education and career, had ever anticipated the amount of political attention and level of advocacy his work would later entail, Dr. Ahmad says, “Short answer is no.” However, he understands the privilege that comes with being born in the diaspora, adding, “You have a responsibility, it’s drilled inside of you. From that respect, any opportunity that opens where you’re able to contribute and give back, or you have to speak up for those who are being silenced, or have tape put around their mouths, you have to take it.”
This kind of work, of course, isn’t without its personal cost. In Dr. Ahmad’s case, as American Doctor shows, he and his family are often on the receiving end of racist and Islamophobic messages and even death threats as a result of his public media appearances.
In Dr. Sidhwa’s case, on the other end of the spectrum, the cost is more emotional. Indeed, his storyline follows his work (alongside Dr. Perlmutter) in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. In between emergency surgeries, the pair often appears in media interviews together. What the film shows that isn’t seen after their news segments air, however, is the unfortunately inevitable fatigue from dealing with journalists who, as the doctors mention early on in our interview, “have an agenda” and often enter their interviews in bad faith.
That fatigue later manifests in a certain cynicism, which Teng’s documentary explores in Dr. Sidhwa’s storyline. In the film, he recounts the sacrifices often required of him in order to “do the right thing” and try to save the lives of those in need. Of course, when the violence doesn’t end because his own government is continually funding those responsible for committing destructive acts, it’s not difficult to see why Dr. Sidhwa has lost some faith in Western media and why, at first, he was reluctant to be part of American Doctor.
That being said, the film has since changed his heart — at least, somewhat. “I really can’t tell you how shocked I am of the people that are coming out — that people want to see this movie,” he says. “The movie was a critic’s pick in The New York Times and The Globe and Mail. That’s such a huge sea change in very important institutions in the United States and Canada.”
He adds, “It hasn’t transited to change on the ground for sure. [“Yet,” Dr. Ahmad interjects.] Not yet, but that’s the thing: who knows if it ever will? After screenings, young people come up to us all the time, asking ‘How do I make the difference? How do I make the change?’ I just try to tell them that we all have to do the right thing, and we hope that it has the effect that we want — which is that people in Gaza could live like normal human beings.”
“Maybe it will happen in my lifetime. Maybe it won’t. Maybe it never will,” he says even further. “But if people had been doing the right thing 50 years ago, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. So, if we don’t start sometime…you know? That’s how I think of it. And this film, and the response to it, is actually enough to even warm the cynic’s heart.”
For Dr. Ahmad, the press tour for American Doctor has been a pleasant surprise. “You find out that the conversations can be different, can be more nuanced, and can dive deeper than what I’ve been accustomed to. Not very superficial, and not the canned sort of questions that are usually asked. Even this conversation,” he says. “It’s just an exposure to a whole new world. It’s like food for the soul. It’s energizing. It makes me want to keep moving forward to the next place, to the next conversation.”
There is, of course, a bittersweetness to the moment, the tour, the accomplishment of putting together a documentary and sharing it with audiences who are receiving it well. Especially for Teng, who in any other context would be feeling a sense of pride in making her feature debut.
“I wish it could be irrelevant tomorrow, to be really honest,” she says of her documentary. “I don’t think that’s the case, so until then, we have to use whatever we can and push the message of our colleagues, whether it’s the camera people and our co-producer and all the Gazan health workers — because they’re still there.”
