Allison Anders's GAS FOOD LODGING is a heartfelt, honest look at a teenage girl's coming of age. Fairuza Balk stars, giving a tremendously sympathetic performance as Shade, a girl living in a trailer park with her mom, Nora (Brooke Adams), and doing her best to hold her volatile family together. While Shade's older sister, Trudi (Ione Skye), sleeps around and is filled with rage at men, her mother, and the world in general, Shade is a compassionate, melancholy teen who spends time watching wildly romantic Mexican movies at the local cinema. She believes her mother will be happy if she can find her father, John Evans (a moving performance by James Brolin), and reunite her family. Though things don't go quite so smoothly, the film maintains a hopeful tone. Anders's second film, GAS FOOD LODGING put her on the indie film map, establishing her as sensitive director whose stories of struggling women, told in their own voices, are marked by emotional honesty and disarming humor. GAS FOOD LODGING is an intimate, well-wrought gem.

In GAS FOOD LODGING, a mother and her two daughters try to live a normal life in their whistle stop desert town in New Mexico. Brooke Adams stars as Nora, whose two diametrically opposed daughters, Shade (Fairuza Balk), and Trudi (Ione Skye) attempt to come to terms with their places in the world. Shade's escape is through the melodramas at the local Mexican cinema; Trudi throws herself into sexual relationships with men. The film examines the women's lives, relationships with each other, and their lovers, in a down-to-earth, empathetic style. GAS FOOD LODGING put director Allison Anders on the indie film map.

Theatrical release: October 2, 1992.

Shot on location in Deming, New Mexico, in approximately one month.

Estimated budget: $1.3 million

The movie was the solo feature film debut for director Allison Anders, who previously codirected BORDER RADIO with Kurt Voss.

The film is loosely based on the novel DON'T LOOK AND IT WON'T HURT by Richard Peck. There were three sisters in the novel.

The working title for the film was actually GAS, FOOD AND LODGING.

The harrowing tale Trudi (Ione Skye) tells Dank (Robert Knepper) is similar to an event in Anders's own life

The letter Nora (Brooke Adams) gets from the school about Trudi (Skye) is from "Allison Anders, Principal."

Skye (Trudi) and Donovan Leitch (Darius) are real-life sister and brother.

Composer J Mascis, who has worked with Anders on several films and was the frontman for the band, Dinosaur Jr, appears in a small role, as Cecil.

The New York Film Critics Circle awarded Anders the Best New Director prize in 1992.

Fairuza Balk won the 1992 Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.

The film was nominated for five 1992 Independent Spirit Awards by the IFP/West: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Balk), and Best Supporting Actress (Adams).

GAS FOOD LODGING had its public premiere at the Sundance Film Festival (for American independent films) in January of 1992, and it was also shown at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, the Berlin Film Festival, the Seattle International Film Festival, the Montreal World Film Festival, the D'eauville Film Festival (winning the American Film Critics Prize), and the Boston Film Festival.

At Film Forum where it played in New York City, the film was held over several times due to overwhelming audience response.

DVD Features:

Region 1
Keep Case
Widescreen
Audio:
Dolby Digital Stereo - English

Brooke Adams: American actress, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978)
Fairuza Balk: American Actress
Ione Skye: Actress
James Brolin: American Actor/Director/Producer

Allison Anders: American Director/Screenwriter

"...[A] fine sleeper....THE LAST PICTURE SHOW shot in color and shaped by a rueful feminine perspective..."
"...A film of promise. Semi-newcomer Alison Anders directs from the heart..."
"...It captures a genuine heartland feel....There's real shrewdness and compassion in its depiction of ordinary lives -- but also a curious, lyrical sense of romance and mystery..."