Courtesy of Watermelon Pictures
Anger. Grief. Frustration. Heartbreak.
Few documentaries leave you feeling all four quite so profoundly. American Doctor, directed by Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Poh Si Teng, is an unflinching examination of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but its power comes from refusing to reduce that crisis to statistics, political talking points, or distant headlines.
Instead, Teng brings us into the hospitals.
The film follows three American doctors, Palestinian-American Dr. Thaer Ahmad, Jewish-American Dr. Mark Perlmutter, and Zoroastrian-American Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, as they travel to Gaza to render medical care under conditions that defy comprehension. What begins as a portrait of medical professionals answering a humanitarian call quickly turns into a psychological burden of returning home after seeing the unimaginable.
Teng’s most effective decision is also her most difficult. American Doctor sanitizes nothing. In fact, an early conversation documented in the film discusses whether or not it is beneficial to shield the audience from the images of dead Palestinian children, but ultimately the decision to shield the audience would meaning shielding them from reality of what is happening.
And that’s where the film becomes genuinely uncomfortable. (as intended)
For many of us, we are accustomed to consuming this tragedy through a screen. A headline. A photograph. A thirty second video before the algorithm pushes towards something else. Teng understands this, and by placing us next to the healthcare professionals treating the children and civilians in overwhelmed hospitals, she strips away some of the distance between us and Gaza.
Courtesy of Watermelon Pictures
The film is not only interested in the horrors these doctors witness. It also shows their return to the United States, and the fact that their medical expertise and testimony as eyewitnesses are still met with political resistance, media scrutiny, and the enormous weight that their words may be falling on deaf ears which will continue to lead to thousands of more casualties. This tension is what gives the film its emotional core.
American Doctor, is difficult viewing. It is graphic, emotionally exhausting, and at times almost unbearable. But again, its discomfort is purposeful. Teng isn’t asking us to feel sorry for ninety minutes. She is challenging the ease with which tragedy can become background noise.
Whether that challenge will inspire action is ultimately up to the viewer.
Powerful. Unsettling. Impossible to ignore. American Doctor, is a must-watch documentary, that transforms headlines into faces, and asks what responsibility comes when we see them.
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