“The Gas Station Attendant” Explores an Immigrant Father’s Life Through a Daughter’s Lens

“The Gas Station Attendant,” a documentary now in theaters, is directed by Karla Murthy. It follows her father, H.N. Shantha Murthy, who left an Indian village as a child, immigrated to the United States, and worked various jobs, including a part-time gas-station attendant after a business venture failed. The title reflects that employment, a recurring motif in his life. The film joins a lineage of child-made documentaries about parents, referencing works such as Chantal Akerman’s “News From Home” (1976) and Sarah Polley’s “Stories We Tell” (2013). The film’s release contributes to broader questions about what it means to make a life in America.

New York Times

Karla Murthy serves as director and memoirist, framing the story through her own recollections. H.N. Shantha Murthy appears via archival footage, home videos, and recorded phone calls, offering a personal view of his peripatetic career and the familial tensions it created.

New York Times

The film weaves childhood home video, historical clips, family photographs, road-trip recordings, and Murthy’s narration into a “rich tapestry.” While its structure is conventional, Murthy’s memoir-like perspective emphasizes subjectivity; the reviewer notes that the documentary derives most of its power from this subjectivity, allowing viewers to see the father’s story through the director’s eyes.

New York Times

By focusing on a single immigrant family, the film raises questions about identity formation, intergenerational understanding, and what it means to make a life in America for newcomers. Its intimate portrayal invites viewers to reassess their own parental narratives, echoing the reviewer’s observation that examining such stories may alter personal self-perception.

New York Times

The reviewer notes that Murthy’s approach is “more conventional” than the formally inventive techniques of earlier child-parent documentaries, suggesting a trade-off between experimental form and emotional accessibility.

New York Times

• “Children spend a great deal of time watching their parents, but it often takes a lifetime to reallyseethem.” — New York Times reviewer

New York Times

• “The title comes from the part-time job he takes to make ends meet when one of his business ventures fails to be as successful as he’d hoped — an occurrence, we soon learn, that was a running theme in his life.” — New York Times reviewer

New York Times

• “The almost painfully personal story of her conflicted relationship with her father’s peripatetic job trajectory, his constant need for change, comes alive through these images.” — New York Times reviewer

New York Times

• “We, too, might tell ourselves stories about our own parents, our own histories, to make sense of who we are.” — New York Times reviewer

New York Times