Writer/director Jazmin Jones’ e-girl, DIY investigation “Seeking Mavis Beacon” premiered in the NEXT section at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, stoking chatter about its complex inquiry into Black representation. Alongside producer Olivia Olivia McKayla Ross, Bay Area filmmaker Jones try to chase down a woman named Renee L’Esperance, who served as the cover model for an early-AI computer typing program “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing,” one of the most popular education software tools of all time. The program first launched in 1987. Watch the trailer for the film below.
As the documentary tells us, L’Esperance was spotted working a counter at a Los Angeles department store before eventually getting paid $500 to become Mavis Beacon, who inspired a kind of Mandela effect where people believed she was an actual person. As IndieWire wrote at the Sundance Film Festival, “This poignant documentary finds the filmmakers on her trail but only to eventually come up against the idea that perhaps L’Esperance does not want to be part of this story at all, acknowledging her right to be forgotten in terms of an online footprint.”
Here’s the official synopsis: “The most recognizable woman in technology lives in our collective imagination. Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing taught millions globally, but the software’s Haitian-born cover model vanished decades ago. Two DIY detectives search for the model while posing questions about identity and artificial intelligence.”
Visually, the film has a strong eye, often with a kind of early-internet Y2K aesthetic built not only into the film’s approach to Screenlife but its editing as well. “Jazmin had a strong vision from the start and emphasized a desire for world building. From the hours spent perfecting the investigation headquarters, to collecting posters and retro tech paraphernalia, to the colorful coordinated outfits, she managed to create a cohesive aesthetic for the film,” Yeelen Cohen, who co-edited the film with Jon Fine and Jazmin Renée Jones, told IndieWire out of Sundance.
Neon releases “Seeking Mavis Beacon” in theaters beginning August 30, first at IFC Center in New York before the movie expands to Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago on September 6, with a wider rollout starting September 13.
