Inside the Edit with BIPOC Doc Editors: AMERICAN DOCTOR
About this Live Online Event
Join Sundance Collab and BIPOC Doc Editors for a live, online presentation from the editing team behind American Doctor, one of the most timely and acclaimed documentaries of 2026.
From director Poh Si Teng, American Doctor premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival to overwhelming acclaim. The film has since screened at many of the most prestigious documentary festivals in the world, including True/False, CPH DOX, Visions du Reel, and Hot Docs, and is being released theatrically by Watermelon Pictures.
This event will feature a presentation from the film’s two editors:
- Ema Ryan Yamazaki (Black Box Diaries, The Making of a Japanese)
- Christopher White (Born To Be, The Lincoln Project)
Yamazaki and White will break down key scenes, discuss their edit process, and unpack how they structured the film with their director. The presentation will include rough cut and final cut clips, slides, and conclude with an audience Q&A. Those in attendance are encouraged to come prepared with questions for Yamazaki and White about the film’s edit.
American Doctor is an unflinching documentary portrait of three physicians – one Palestinian, one Jewish, one Zoroastrian – who volunteer in besieged hospitals in Gaza. The film charts both their harrowing work on the front lines of war and their efforts in the U.S. to fight for the patients and colleagues they left behind.
This event is part of the “Inside the Edit with BIPOC Doc Editors” series, a program hosted by Sundance Collab in collaboration with BIPOC Doc Editors. Follow these links to watch our previous events in this series, which included the films Spermworld, Patrice: The Movie, Sabbath Queen, Cutting Through Rocks, and Come See Me in the Good Light.
If you would benefit from an accommodation to fully participate in this event, please either submit a request here, contact us at (435) 776-7790, or email us at accessibility@sundance.org to discuss your specific requests. Every effort will be made to accommodate advance requests; however, requests made within 5 days of the event may not be guaranteed.
A recording of this session will be posted to Sundance Collab's Event Recording Library within two business days of the live event. All registered attendees will receive an email with a link to view the recording at no cost for two business days after it is posted. After that, on-demand access to the recording can be purchased for $10.
Live Online EventPeople
Ema Ryan Yamazaki
Ema Ryan Yamazaki is an Academy Award and Emmy nominated filmmaker. Raised in Osaka by a Japanese mother and British father, Ema attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. With a unique perspective as an insider and outsider in Japan, Ema strives to tell stories that empathetically show human struggle and triumph.
Ema's latest feature film The Making Of A Japanese follows one year in a Japanese public school, observing 1st and 6th grade students learning the traits necessary to become part of Japanese society. The film premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2023, and has received numerous awards including the Audience Award at the largest festivals for Japanese film in both Europe and the USA, such as NIPPON CONNECTION in Germany and JAPAN CUTS in New York. In 2026, the film was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy Award. The film opened in 13 theaters in Japan and then expanded to over 100 as it became a box office hit, creating a wide conversation around the Japanese education system.
Instruments Of A Beating Heart, born out of the feature, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film, making Ema the first Japanese filmmaker with a film about Japan to be nominated in the category.
Her previous film Koshien: Japan’s Field Of Dreams explores the phenomenon of high school baseball in Japan. In co-production with NHK, the film is an intimate and dramatic journey following coaches and players from two high schools - one being Shohei Ohtani's alma mater - during the historic 100th summer tournament. In 2020, the film was chosen for a New York Times recommended film, aired in primetime on ESPN and was released theatrically in Japan.
Ema’s debut feature documentary Money Business: The Adventures Of Curious George’s Creators uses animation, archival materials and interviews to tell the unknown war story of the Curious George book authors. In Summer 2026.6 the Japanese dubbed version of the film is set to have a theatrical release in Japan.
She has also served as Editor on notable films such as Marc Levin’s Class Divide (Grand Jury Prize at DOC NYC in 2015), Naomi Kawase’s official Olympic film for Tokyo 2020 (Cannes 2022), Shiori Ito’s Black Box Diaries (Oscar-nominated in 2025), and the highly discussed Poh Si Teng’s American Doctor (Premiered at Sundance 2026).
Ema is also a teacher and founding board member of DDDD film school, a documentary community in Tokyo that she started with her colleagues in 2025. In 2026, Ema wrote her debut book, published under Shinchosha Publishing. She also became the first Japanese person to be awarded the prestigious Chicken & Egg Award, recognizing women and gender-expansive filmmakers who are poised to reach new heights in their creative and impact trajectories across the world.
Christopher White
Christopher White, ACE is an Emmy-nominated editor and director who has contributed to numerous award-winning films for over twenty years. His films have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, The Tribeca Film Festival, The New York Film Festival, SXSW, DocNYC and The Toronto Film Festival, and have been presented on most of the major broadcasters and streamers.
His latest film, American Doctor, premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and has shown around the world at numerous film festivals. Other recent projects include The Lincoln Project, a five-part series currently streaming on Showtime/Paramount+; Born To Be, which premiered at the 2019 New York Film Festival, and received a Best Documentary Emmy Nomination in 2021; and The Innocence Files, currently streaming on Netflix. In 2018, Roll Red Roll premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and was the season opener for the 2018 POV series on PBS. Chris also cut the Emmy-nominated Hard Road Home, as well as the PBS Independent Lens doc Women In Blue in 2021. His first film, Family Name, won the Freedom of Expression Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997.
In 2012, Christopher also co-directed and edited Love Free or Die, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, winning the Special Jury Prize. His other directorial efforts include The Killer Within, which premiered at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival and was nominated for a 2008 Best Documentary Emmy.
In addition to serving as a Story Consultant on over twenty films, Christopher is a member of ACE (American Cinema Editors) and NATAS (National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences).
Soheil Rezayazdi
Moderator | Digital Course & Event Producer
Soheil Rezayazdi is a Digital Course & Event Producer at the Sundance Institute, where he produces multi-session courses, master classes, filmmaker Q&As, and other digital programs for Sundance Collab. Prior to Sundance, Soheil served as the Nonfiction Programs Manager at the Gotham Film & Media Institute. He oversaw the Gotham’s core documentary programs: the Documentary Feature Lab, the Spotlight on Documentaries project market, and the Documentary Development Initiative in partnership with HBO Documentary Films. Soheil has worked with emerging filmmakers since 2015, when he began a seven-year tenure at the Columbia University MFA Film Program. At Columbia he managed the Columbia University Film Festival (CUFF), the Dr. Saul and Dorothy Kit Film Noir Festival, and the Carla Kuhn Memorial Speaker Series.
Soheil is also a freelance writer on film and pop culture with articles in Indiewire, McSweeney’s, Vice, Filmmaker Magazine, Documentary Magazine, Paper, Paste, and elsewhere. He has also served as an external reviewer for artist programs operated by Creative Capital, Kartemquin Pictures, Chicken & Egg Pictures, and the International Documentary Association. A native of Iran, he holds an MA in journalism and a BA in film studies from the University of Iowa.