twohundredfiftysixcolors is a 16mm film that traces the arc of increased complexity and pointed use of the animated gif.  From an internet page signpost, a tool of multiplying internet memes, and finally a place for considered artistic gestures (created within this medium's conceptual and technical parameters), this relatively obscure filetype contains an abundance of historical information and contemporary implications to be unpacked.

Curating and filming these pixels from the domain of the internet signals a new form of movie making and acknowledges the complexities embedded within these highly compressed files. Placing them in the proximity of a history that influenced and drove their invention and continued re-invention, latent connections emerge begging a reconsideration of the animated GIF’s relationship to early cinema.  Over a century later, this re-imagined form of animating stills begins to look familiar and informs the evolving cultural production of film, video, and other time-based media.  

The film is a curated archive that, when screened in a collective viewing environment as a cinema event, becomes revelatory for discussion, analysis, and conjecture on the animated gif's current location and future trajectory.