Reimagining the AMERICAN DREAM

KARLA Murthy's documentary The Gas Station Attendant is an intimate and compassionate portrait of her migrant father, HN Shantha Murthy, and his incredible journey, as a child, from his village near Bengaluru to Texas.

- NAMRATA JOSHI

Stringing together home video footage with recorded phone calls with her father while he worked nights at a gas station in Texas, Murthy captures his memories of the tough life of extreme poverty in India and the unending struggles in America. Through his story, she also dwells on ideas of parenting, family and, most importantly, the immigrant experience.

The film has been produced by Rajal Pitroda with Geeta Gandbhir as the executive producer, whose latest documentary, The Perfect Neighbour, won the Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival this year. The Gas Station Attendant has been having a successful run in the film festival circuit—from its world premiere at Sheffield DocFest to DocNYC of late. It won the Grand Jury Special Mention award at Sheffield and the Best Feature Documentary awards at Nashville Film Festival and San Diego Asian Film Festival.

Excerpts:

What made you pick up this subject, Karla?

KM: There were these phone conversations that I had with my father recorded over 20 years ago. The calls were like a project to keep him company in the middle of the night. Then, of course, his passing made me want to hear his voice again and brought me back to those tapes. I also kept thinking about what it would mean for my kids. So some of it was wanting to share his story with them.