Synopsis

This personal essay film grew out of telephone conversations I recorded with my father over 20 years ago. When I first moved to New York after college, my dad started working the overnight shift at a gas station near their home in Missouri City, Texas, a suburb of Houston. I would call him in the middle of the night to check up on him. Often, we would talk about our family’s money problems. But sometimes, as the night would draw on, he would reminisce about his life in India. So we began recording our conversations.

The story of my father’s life in India and his journey to America are woven throughout the film: fond memories of growing up in Bangalore, running away from home as a young boy to escape extreme poverty, fragments of his time living on the streets of India, looking for food and work wherever he could, and dreaming that “someday, somehow, my life will change.”

Using past and present home movies shot over decades, I also reflect on my own life growing up in Texas - exploring themes of father-daughter relationships - through the lens of a child of immigrants, and contemplate my life now as mother.

Ultimately, The Gas Station Attendant attempts to make sense of my father’s incredible journey to America, only to have a life filled with many hardships, unfolding the lessons learned and passed down. This film reveals one of the countless stories we pass by everyday that go unnoticed and untold, a story about a full and rich life, a story about the human spirit, the capacity to dream, to love and survive.

It is my love letter to the immigrant working class, to my family.