Los Angeles – Mark Perlmutter has treated patients hit by natural disaster and conflicts across 30 countries, including in his native United States. Yet, nothing prepared him for the horrors he would witness in the Gaza Strip under Israeli bombardment.

“Just our first week in Gaza was worse than all of my experiences combined,” the orthopedic surgeon said of deployments that included the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

The suffering Perlmutter and his colleagues have seen in Gaza hospitals since Israel launched its retaliation for the October 2023 Hamas attack forms the core of “American Doctor,” a documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and arrives in select U.S. theaters this Friday.