Joshua Longhurst | Oasis / 2016

shame

by Douglas Messerli

 

Tim Spencer (screenplay), Joshua Longhurst (director) Oasis / 2016 [8 minutes]

 

There certainly is not much to this 8-minute Australian film, but I can say that the cinematographer by Michael Filocamo is quite excellent. The story, such as it is, is simply about a moment in time.    Evidently, Dale (Alex Packard), a closeted gay boy staying at a trailer park, has already encountered a handsome and friendly Englishman, Jake (Chris Dingwall).

 

      The shy boy bolts from a bathroom tall to take a shower in private, still fully clothed.

      Soon after, having parked his wet shirt in his duffel bag, he notices the entry of Jake. It’s almost as if he can’t resist sneaking a photo of the British beauty fully naked. But when Jake finishes and begins shaving, Dale has second thoughts, and admits his “crime,” choosing to keep his fragile relationship with the polite man rather than the memento to which he might have jacked off a hundred times.

     Jake does not approve of his behavior, and Dale, after admitting that Jake is the nicest man in the caravan park, runs off in shame. Yet the next morning he awakens to find his duffel bag on his trailer porch, obviously returned by the dashing Englishman, who has seemingly recognized the difficult decision the young man has made in remaining honest with him.

     Surely, it doesn’t offer anything up to his hormones, but demonstrates the depth of his sensibility. When he meets the right person, we are nearly certain that he will seek out a full relationship rather than seeking night-to-night stands. Although I might have been just such a young man, who waited so long to come out that when I did I went wild with sexual exploration, doing precisely what I suggest Dale will not. Although in the end, I did seek out a relationship that has lasted now some 55 years, so maybe I’m right after all.

 

Los Angeles, June 18, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (June 2025).