Nashville Film Festival 56: "The Gas Station Attendant" Review

"The Gas Station Attendant" Poster, courtesy of Nashville Film Festival

"The Gas Station Attendant," a documentary, directed and produced by Karla Murthy, captures the raw reality of her fathers story as an Indian immigrant by looking through the memories of his daughter. 

Primarily shot on an old cam-recorder camera, Murthy subtly yet impactfully captures the complexities of nostalgia, family, grief and her and her fathers journey navigating life in America. 

Grainy flashes of cinematography by Murthy of her father driving on a sun lit highway, or a family gathered for Christmas dinner, or the streets of Bangladesh in the 50s all fluidly capture the story of Murthy's life while drawing the audience in with gentle engagement. 

The parallelism in cinematography between the lives of Murthy and her father creates an emotionally captivating time warp into their memories and personal journeys.  

Paired with the subtle and nostalgic cinematography, Murthy’s narration throughout the film, encapsulates the aspirations, fears and failures of a man trying to support his family, while also describing her own emotions in retrospect while grieving her father. 

Music by Bobak Lotfipour sets a simple yet tender tone, further capturing the vulnerability of Murthy's story. 

"The Gas Station Attendant’s" documentary style of sharing a family's story without interviews but through the memories of the director captures the humanizing insight into the life of Karla Murthy. 

In the final minutes, Murthy sums up the premise of her documentary saying,  “and so here I am stuck in a time warp relieving the past while trying to live in the present looking for answers, wondering what it means to be a good father, a good daughter, a good mother.”

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This article was written by Samantha Graessle.