Doc Talk Podcast Goes Live With Director Poh Si Teng And Physicians Of ‘American Doctor’

Dr. Mark Perlmutter doesn’t mince words describing what he saw as an American orthopedic surgeon volunteering in Gaza hospitals. He calls the killing of thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces “the worst pediatric homicide” he’s ever witnessed. Perlmutter is one of three U.S. physicians who recount their experience treating the injured in the documentary American Doctor, directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Poh Si Teng. Perlmutter is Jewish, Dr. Thaer Ahmad is Palestinian American, and Dr. Feroze Sidhwa is of Pakistani descent, from a family that follows the Zoroastrian religious tradition. The doctors from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds are united in their condemnation of Israel, which they accuse of committing a genocide in Gaza following the Hamas terror attack on Israel of October 7, 2023. Teng and the physicians joined Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast for a special edition of the show recorded before a live audience at the American Cinematheque’s Friend of the Fest 2026 festival in Los Angeles. The filmmaker and her protagonists received a standing ovation as they took the stage at the Los Feliz 3 theaters. Watch on Deadline Teng explains how she came up with the idea to focus her documentary on three American physicians who chose to render aid to Palestinian children knowing it could cost them their lives (at least 1,700 health care workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics). The filmmaker also tells us why she likens the documentary to medical dramas The Pitt and ER. Ahmad shares his thoughts on the IDF’s announcement of a criminal investigation into the killing of 5-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who perished after being trapped in her family’s vehicle in Gaza that took sustained Israeli fire (Rajab’s story was told in the drama The Voice of Hind Rajab, an Oscar nominee earlier this year). And he reveals the explanation he was offered for Israel’s refusal to let him back into Gaza to resume treatment of wounded Palestinians. Sidhwa addresses whether his background – he’s neither Jewish, nor Muslim, nor Christian – gives him greater objectivity in assessing what he observed in Gaza. And Perlmutter and Teng explore the shifting politics of traditional U.S. support of Israel, a shift symbolized by how Dr. Perlmutter was received when he recently returned to the office of a conservative U.S. senator, an office where he was previously denied entry. That’s on the new episode of Doc Talk hosted by Oscar winner John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Shirley) and Matt Carey, Deadline’s senior documentary editor. The pod is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios. Listen to the episode above or on major podcast platforms including Spotify, iHeart and Apple.