The Gas Station Attendant

Director Karla Murthy in person for Q&A!

As a young boy, H. N. Shantha Murthy ran away from home to escape the extreme poverty of his Indian village. He traveled the country in search of work, dreaming that one day his life would change. It did, following a serendipitous encounter with a couple visiting India from Houston, Texas. But life in the States was not exactly the “American Dream” come true.

Karla Murthy’s film weaves together home videos and phone conversations recorded while her father worked as a gas station attendant in Texas. Alongside his story, she reflects on her own experiences as the daughter of immigrants (her mother is from the Philippines), trying to make a life of her own in New York City, and now as a mother of two boys.

What emerges is an intimate love letter – a meditation on a complicated father-daughter relationship and a poignant tribute to the immigrant working class.

Co-presented by AmDoc/POV