Community members gathered Saturday night at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society for a screening of American Doctor, a 2026 documentary about three American physicians who traveled to Gaza to volunteer in hospitals under siege. Dr Feroze Sidhwa, whose work is featured in the film, participated in a discussion after the screening.
The film follows Dr. Sidhwa, Dr. Thaer Ahmad and Dr. Mark Perlmutter from their homes in the United States to the front lines in Gaza at Nasser Hospital. Their work also leads them to the halls of Congress, where they urge lawmakers to consider the conflict through the lens of its effects on children and civilian health.
American Doctor also explored how the doctors’ experiences differed, in part due to their backgrounds. Mr. Perlmutter is Jewish, while Mr. Sidhwa comes from a Zoroastrian background. Dr. Ahmad, meanwhile, faced repeated obstacles to entering Gaza because of his Palestinian heritage, despite being born in the United States.
Mr. Perlmutter and Mr. Sidhwa were able to make two trips to Gaza, before and after the 2025 ceasefire.
After the screening, Mr. Sidhwa joined Chris Bahara, the Film Society’s membership director, for a discussion about his experiences in Gaza, the process of making the film and the role Americans can play in shaping U.S. policy.
“Weapons don’t roll downhill and end up in Tel Aviv. It’s not a law of gravity that’s getting them over there,” Mr. Sidhwa said. “Each day, it’s a political choice. There is a person in the executive department who signs off on literally every arms transfer that goes to anywhere, including Israel, and they keep putting their signature on there.”
Mr. Sidhwa cited estimates from United Nations officials to illustrate the scale of destruction in Gaza. He referenced a statistic from Jaco Cilliers, the UN Development Program’s special representative in Palestine.
“Sixty one million tons of rubble have been generated by the assault on Gaza. That is 20 times all of the rubble generated from every war on Earth in the past 18 years,” he said.
Mr. Sidhwa challenged the sold-out audience to consider what the Vineyard community could do in the face of such devastation, emphasizing that meaningful change begins with people organizing around shared concerns.
He pointed to the case of Rogerio da Silva Lima and Nycolas de Al Varenga, an Island father and son detained by the U.S. Coast Guard in May, as an example of an issue that could unite residents across political differences.
“I would say the most important thing to realize is you can’t make [change] as individuals. I’m sure you don’t all have the exact same ideas about lots of stuff. But one thing that you can agree on is that you don’t want a dad and his kid kidnapped off the coast of your Island. It’s just such an outrage,” he said.
He urged attendees to work with their peers toward a shared vision for their community.
“People need to invest in a society that they want, as opposed to the one that we have,” he said. “You have to get together with your neighbors.”