American Doctor

synopsis

The Geneva Conventions protect hospitals from military attacks. Yet according to Palestinian sources and the UN, more than 1,700 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza over three years of war. Three American volunteer doctors venture here, to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, operating under the threat of air strikes, during the ceasefire, and after it ends. Despite a persistent sense of futility amid the widespread devastation, they manage to save some patients. What they cannot heal, however, is public opinion or the political establishment back home in the US, where they must explain, over and over, through the media and in face-to-face meetings, what they have witnessed with their own eyes.

“Institutions and companies are made up of people and those people change.” — Poh Si Teng, Screen Daily

Source

biography

Poh Si Teng is a Malaysian-American documentary filmmaker based in New York. She worked as a journalist for The New York Times and produced the Oscar-nominated short film St. Louis Superman (2019). Her directorial debut, American Doctor, was screened at Ji.hlava and won the Audience Award at Hot Docs.

film details

director:	Poh Si Teng
producer:	Poh Si Teng, Kirstine Barfod, Reem Haddad
photography:	Ibrahim Al Otla, Chris Renteria
editing:	Christopher White, Ema Ryan Yamazaki