OASIS
A Short Film by Lucie Pottecher
Entrusted with overseeing the peaceful passing of five residents at the unconventional Oasis medical facility, caregiver Alex must navigate her convictions when she forms an unexpected connection with Jasmine, a defiant patient who wishes to go back on her decision.
SYNOPSIS
SYNOPSIS
THEMES
Autonomy and the Right to Choose
The Illusion of Care and Control
Regret and the Urgency to Live
In the sterile, surreal halls of the Oasis Facility, death has been transformed into ceremony. Here, terminal patients are promised a painless, almost celebratory passing. Alex, a devoted caregiver, guides them through their final days, ensuring each farewell feels dignified and complete.
Among the residents is Jasmine, a young woman whose quiet defiance sets her apart. As the ceremony approaches, Jasmine’s resolve begins to crack. The weight of a life unlived pushes her to a desperate decision: she no longer wants to die.
Jasmine’s plea forces Alex to confront the very convictions that brought her here—and the memory of her own mother’s slow decline, when she was too afraid to act. As the surreal ritual unfolds, Alex must decide whether to honor the system she has dedicated herself to, or break it to grant Jasmine the choice she was once denied.
Visually, Oasis blurs the line between reality and hallucination. The film’s striking compositions and shifting perspectives mirror the power struggle between caregiver and patient. Through bold stylistic choices—like breaking the fourth wall to implicate the viewer—Oasis becomes an unsettling meditation on autonomy, compassion, and the moral costs of control.
At its heart, Oasis asks: When someone reclaims their will to live, who has the right to stand in their way?
WHY
When I was 13, I lost my grandmother to a painful battle with ALS.
When I was 13, I lost my grandmother to ALS. I watched her slowly lose her agency and sense of self. Yet she kept fighting.
One day, I asked her, “Doesn’t it hurt?” Unable to speak, she typed three words on her iPad: What other choice?
That question haunted me.
What if she had asked me to end her pain? And what if I couldn’t bring myself to do it?
From that moment, the seed of Oasis was planted.
Oasis dives headfirst into the ethical and emotional complexities of choice within end-of-life care. It asks what happens when the principles we’ve always believed to be right are challenged, and when our compassion collides with our fear.
The story unfolds in a near-future care facility designed to ease patients’ final days, blending speculative fiction with grounded emotion. Inspired by works like Black Mirror and Homecoming, the film uses a heightened aesthetic to provoke reflection on autonomy, morality, and the blurred boundaries between care and control.
But Oasis isn’t just about end-of-life care. At its core, it’s about the universal struggle for agency over our own stories, whether that means choosing how we live, how we love, or how we leave this world. In a world where bodily autonomy and freedom of choice are increasingly under threat, Oasis urges us to consider how we protect those rights, and what it means to truly honor another person’s will.
In bringing Oasis to life, our team is proud to collaborate with organizations like the American Medical Women’s Association, whose mission to advance equity in healthcare echoes the film’s commitment to compassion and dignity.
AWARD-WINNING TEAM
Director
LUCIE POTTECHER
Lucie Pottecher is a French American director and producer based in New York City. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, she has collaborated with leading production companies, including Wrigley Media Group and Good Egg Entertainment, creating content for major networks and streamers such as Food Network, HGTV, Hulu, and Netflix.
Her diverse body of work spans short-form documentaries for the BBC (Fascinating Codes of Modern Teenage Flirting), branded content for Mad Studios, and independent commercials for Only NY. Most recently, she served as a segment producer on Chopped Season 56 (2024).
Lucie is currently producing a feature documentary that explores the vibrant Desi dance community in the U.S., inspired by the global impact of "Naatu Naatu" at the Oscars. She is also partnering with Fionn Ferreira, an acclaimed inventor and Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, to develop animated and unscripted television projects that promote sustainability.
Driven by curiosity and a passion for storytelling that celebrates resilience and choice, Lucie strives to champion innovation across mediums. When not behind the camera, she is most likely exploring New York’s newest restaurants in search of her next favorite meal.
Co-Writer
KEITH MORRIS
Keith Morris is a theatrician and educator based in New York City. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from NYU (Educational Theatre). He is an acting coach, tutor, and extracurricular teacher in NYC public schools. His theatrical work includes directing, writing, stage managing, making costumes and props, and crafting custom theatrical masks. He is the acting Deck Manager for NYCDOE’s annual Schubert High School Theater Festival (2022, 2023).
Producer
SHAYAN FAROOQ
Shayan Farooq is a Pakistani-American producer originally from Los Angeles, now based in Brooklyn, New York. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Shayan began her work in the film & TV industry in 2018. Her producing work has been primarily in commercials, television programs, short films, and music videos. Since then she has worked on Clio- and Cannes Lion-winning campaigns, as well as founding her own film production company.
Previously Shayan produced 2 TV programs for National Geographic and 1 feature-length documentary for PBS. Prior to her work in natural history documentaries, she worked in development at Braven Films with directors such as Sebastian Lelio, Sally Potter, and Carlos Cuaron. Most recently she finished a position as an Agency Producer at Draftline, the in-house agency of Anheuser-Busch where she worked on multiple Super Bowl campaigns. She is currently in development to produce her first feature in the Summer of 2024.
Producer
RHEA DUDANI
Rhea Dudani is a South Asian filmmaker with a passion for feminism and politics, who specializes in creating female-centric narratives to break the glass ceiling. With a B.F.A in Film and Television from the Tisch School of the Arts (‘21), Rhea now works as a Producer at Thematic Campaigns and just wrapped on a project as a freelance Associate Producer with Producer Beth Levison—a feature documentary coming out in late 2023. She most recently wrote, directed, produced, and edited a short student film called Bereft, which has received critical acclaim across North America.
She also has production credits for the narrative short for the Oscar-nominated documentary short The Martha Mitchell Effect (2022), Storm Lake (2021), Pure (2021), for PBS’s POV on Season 33 (2020) and 34 (2021), and HBO’s Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered (2020). She has credits for ads made for Democrats for the 2022 Election, and ads made by the DNC for the 2020 Election. Her projects mean a lot to her, each one stemming from a personal passion or perspective.
Director of Photography
CECE CHAN
Cece Chan is a New York–based cinematographer from Hong Kong. She graduated from Tisch School of the Arts in 2020 with a BFA in Film and Television. She has shot internationally, in Colombia, Canada, and the Czech Republic. Raised in Hong Kong, she’s proud to bring a global perspective to her work. Her work has won best cinematography at NFFTY and London International Film Festival. She’s most interested in bringing underrepresented narratives to life, working primarily on dramatic narratives. Sean Baker recently shared a music video she shot (“Sole Obsession”) on Twitter.
Production Designer
MARCEL ANDRE
Marcel Andre is an award-winning director and production designer from Luxembourg, residing in Los Angeles and New York City. Marcel is influenced by a multitude of artistic mediums that expand beyond film. His love for fashion and interior design has allowed him to create layered and detailed-oriented worlds. Marcel has always had a distinctive eye for color and is committed to bringing the artist's vision to life. Marcel has worked with brands like Nike, Hulu, and Lifetime, as well as the likes of popular artists like Nicki Minaj. He served as Art Director for the upcoming feature film The Mattachine Family starring Nico Tortorella and Emily Hampshire.
