{"id":866609,"date":"2026-08-21T20:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T20:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/866609\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T20:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T20:46:10","slug":"why-american-doctor-director-quit-her-job-to-make-gaza-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/866609\/","title":{"rendered":"Why ‘American Doctor’ Director Quit Her Job to Make Gaza Documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhen Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist Poh Si Teng heard the news of her colleague Samer Abu\u00a0Daqqa being killed by an Israeli drone strike<\/a> while on assignment back in December 2023, something in her broke.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen it\u2019s your peer, it affects you in a very deep way. And then of course I was living in New York, being in all these circles because I worked in all these places \u2014 pin drop silence from journalists, from people I respected,\u201d Teng says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t continue as I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShortly after, Teng quit her executive job at ABC News and emptied out her savings account with the goal of making a film about Gaza. But as somebody from outside the Palestinian community, she had no idea where to start. Nearly a year later, the ideas for \u201cAmerican Doctor<\/a>\u201d began flowing when she came across an emotional video of Jewish doctor Mark Perlmutter talking about politicians not working toward a ceasefire because of their ties to lobby groups.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter meeting Perlmutter and two other U.S. doctors \u2014 Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a Zoroastrian surgeon, and Dr. Thaer Ahmad, who is Palestinian American \u2014 the genesis for her directorial debut \u201cAmerican Doctor\u201d was born. Shot on the ground in Gaza, the searing documentary cuts between these three doctors working to save wounded children at a hospital while speaking out in the U.S. about the atrocities and bombings they witness.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was thinking, \u2018If I do a film about journalists, I don\u2019t know whether it will land. Maybe it\u2019s too inside baseball,’\u201d Teng recalls, adding that she decided not to include Palestine or Gaza in the title because it would turn people away. \u201cAs a former executive for a studio, we watch how people watch things, and it was not lost on me how American audiences love medical dramas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChris Renteria<\/p>\n

\n\tThe opening scene sets up a core ethical question that journalists covering war and genocide have to ask themselves when it comes to showing uncensored images of children and babies. In the footage, Teng and Perlmutter get into a tense debate about the ethics.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou can\u2019t see my face because the camera is shooting at Mark and I\u2019m crying, I\u2019m deeply embarrassed. And I felt really guilty,\u201d Teng says, who ultimately decides to include the brutal image of children in the film. \u201cIt\u2019s such a delicate balance \u2014 you show too much, it\u2019s gratuitous. You show too little, it\u2019s not real. In terms of finding out what that could be, I am so glad that Mark yelled at me and set the tone at the very beginning of our production.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHamza Ali, co-founder of Watermelon Pictures<\/a> and executive producer on \u201cAmerican Doctor,\u201d recalls watching that scene for the first time over a Zoom call when Teng was looking for financing.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was extremely powerful, I was immediately like, \u2018This is a whole different approach,’\u201d Ali says. \u201cTo be honest, it was early on in the genocide and I was trying to have this call, meanwhile watching this emotional, compelling footage, so I was sold immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTeng pulled on her experience working as a cameraperson and producer for the Associated Press, as well as working as a reporter for the New York Times and Al Jazeera Media. She quips about her credit as an additional cinematographer: \u201cThat\u2019s when you know a filmmaker is also broke when you see her credits everywhere!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother pivotal moment in the film\u2019s journey was its Sundance premiere earlier this year. The conversations that the screening started showed Teng that people are becoming more perceptive to watching stories from Palestine.<\/p>\n

\n\tWatermelon Pictures, the Palestinian-owned distribution company that released \u201cThe Encampments\u201d and \u201cFrom Ground Zero,\u201d boarded \u201cAmerican Doctor\u201d in April as U.S. distributor. While Teng ended up with other distribution offers in the months following Sundance, working with Watermelon Pictures was a \u201cno brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou have to remember who was there when nobody wanted to come near the film,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen watching the film at Sundance, Ali admits that he was \u201csurprised\u201d by the comedic relief and the community Teng captures between fellow doctors and patients: \u201cIt\u2019s needed. You see this very human element of the doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Watermelon came on board, the goal was to release the film as soon as possible to shine a light on healthcare workers being targeted in Gaza, especially with the upcoming U.S. midterm elections.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe other goal of the film is to really get the medical NGOs to be more vocal. There\u2019s been too many doctors and healthcare workers that are actually getting doxed for speaking out and facing repercussions,\u201d Ali says. \u201cThis is a humanitarian catastrophe and we feel like this is a place where medical NGOs should be taking more of a firm stance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth Teng and Ali describe the film as a collective \u201cTrojan Horse approach\u201d to get people to watch a film from the Palestinian perspective. And to honor healthcare workers, they are providing free screenings to doctors, nurses and medical students in Los Angeles and Chicago.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think a lot of the public perception is, \u2018It\u2019s over there, it\u2019s Gaza. It\u2019s the West Bank,’\u201d Teng says. \u201cNo, it\u2019s connected to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAmerican Doctor\u201d is currently playing in limited theaters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist Poh Si Teng heard the news of her colleague Samer Abu\u00a0Daqqa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[180968,49,48,49495,75,337,233936],"class_list":["post-866609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-american-doctor","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-documentaries-to-watch","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-watermelon-pictures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}