Centerpiece: The Gas Station Attendant

A daughter reflects on her father’s life — weaving the story of his miraculous journey from the streets of India with the realities of life in America. Using recorded phone calls with her dad while he worked nights at a gas station along with home movies past and present, this intimate film is a meditation on family, the immigrant experience, and the dreams we carry with us. Karla Murthy presents a biopic about her father, whose abundant kindness led to him escaping extreme poverty in India because of a chance encounter with American tourists. She recounts the array of odd jobs he worked in Texas while struggling to support his family, also reflecting on her own experience as a second-generation immigrant and as a mother of two. What emerges is an intimate love letter – a reflection on a complicated father-daughter relationship, and a poignant tribute to the immigrant working class.

This film was supported by CAAM’s Doc Fund with funding provided by CPB.