LIVE ASHES is an experimental adaptation of Shakespeare's MEASURE FOR MEASURE . It is told with two casts, each made up of actors who shot their roles solo in front of green screens. Some actors play two roles, while some roles are played by two actors.

Scenes and dialogue are rearranged, and incorporated with apocryphal material shot by the director over two decades while working on other projects. LIVE ASHES also references and incorporates other outside works into a moving collage of sorts, using the play as a framing device to create a context where the play's themes of moral hypocrisy and political corruption can better illuminate and inform a story that phases between narratives and timelines.

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    A scheming Duke pretends to take leave of his kingdom, following the end of a brutal war. He leaves in his absence Angelo, a respected war hero famed for his virtue - and tasks him with dusting off an old law making all fornication illegal. A young man is condemned to death by this newly-enforced law, and his sister (an aspiring nun) pleads his case - only to find herself compromised when she is forced to choose between her chastity and her brother's life.   Her story is mirrored by that of a restless housewife,

who steps out on her marriage and begins to find herself through music. Her story is revealed to be a forgotten work of fiction, soon to be reevaluated in an upcoming documentary. Staged interviews with the actress and cast members in character further blur the lines between reality and fiction. 

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   With material shot over the course of 25 years, mostly on consumer-grade equipment, the project traces the story, the methods and technology used to make it and how we view it in the end. Featuring music by JULIA KENT ( Antony and the Johnsons , Rasputina) , industrial pioneers CONTROLLED BLEEDING and the legendary DIAMANDA GALAS.   Additional music, songs and visual elements are also incorporated from an extended cast of cultural cutouts (both willing and unwitting). 

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   LIVE ASHES was set to make its live premiere in 2020, 25 years after the director's first release (a trilogy of mumblecore features credited under the name Keanu Clinger). COVID delays have the live premiere now set for JULY 2021, and the title will be made available for free online this summer.  It is also presented as the director's final mublecore (lo-fi) feature.