Michael Moshe Dahan’s short film “Two Points of Failure”

2014 Department of Art MFA Alumnus Michael Moshe Dahan’s short film “Two Points of Failure”  (2013) continues to be presented at prestigious international experimental film festivals.

The piece made its international premiere in competition as part of the Tiger Shorts Program at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2014, and was subsequently invited to screen at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival.  Invitations have been made to screen the film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in Scottland (EIFF) 2014, 25FPS Festival in Zagreb, Croatia, The Farnsworth Art Museum, The Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival (BIEFF) 2014, and most recently, the 18th Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival 2014 in the Czech Republic.   In addition, the artist was featured in conversation with Professor Jamie Nisbet for Artforum.com / 500 Words.

Conceived and directed by Dahan and Produced by N. Braxton Pope, "Two Points of Failure" frames the demise of analogue film technology (1976-2013) and takes as its primary subject matter Godard's failed prototype for a compact 35mm camera.  Named the Aaton 35-8, this apparatus, while small and portable, suffered from myopia and was simply too loud.  "Two Points of Failure" (2013) is about this camera that could not see; the film functions as an index of a disappearance.     

"Two Points of Failure" was completed with funds from the Medici Circle Grant and the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts (UCI-RA).  Michael Moshe Dahan is currently a Doctoral Student in the joint PhD Program in Drama and Theatre, with an Emphasis in Critical Theory, at UC Irvine and UC San Diego.