THE STORY – 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.
THE CAST – N/A
THE TEAM – Jazmin Jones (Director)
THE RUNNING TIME – 102 Minutes
Anyone who ever had to negotiate their first home computer in the 1980s probably knows the name Mavis Beacon. For many, her familiar image of a confident Black woman suggested trust, and for African-American women and girls in particular, she became an inspiration and a cultural icon. With her wildly popular educational computer game, “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing,” she calmly reassured her students who were concerned about developing their keyboard skills and, by extension, bolstered their confidence in facing the prospect of an emerging new world dominated by computers. For that, they had Mavis Beacon to thank. The only thing is, Mavis Beacon never existed.
The idea of Mavis certainly made an impression as a child on nonbinary Black filmmaker Jazmin Renee Jones, who has never forgotten seeing the game’s image of Black hands with long acrylic nails on a computer keyboard. For the first time, Jones recognized someone like them represented in a computer game. This revelation inspired them not only to learn typing but drew them to technology and, in particular, filmmaking. The fact that Mavis is merely an avatar and that her iconic image is of Haitian-born model Renee L’Esperance hasn’t dimmed Jones’ interest in Mavis in the slightest. Jones learns that L’Esperance, who dropped from sight shortly after the cover photo shoot, was paid only $500 for the job and didn’t share in the enormous profit that her image brought to the game’s developer, Software Toolworks. Determined to bring the model’s story to light, Jones sets out to track her down to bring attention to this injustice. That quest is the subject of Jones’ debut feature, “Seeking Mavis Beacon,” which chronicles the search for L’Esperance, which hasn’t been seen in over two decades.
To help in the search, Jones enlists the aid of Olivia McKayla Ross, the self-proclaimed “Cyber Doula.” Though not even 21, Ross has been a key member of Black Girls Code, an organization that helps young Black girls become comfortable with technology. Ross shares Jones’ love of all things Mavis, so they join forces to take on L’Esperance’s disappearance as a missing persons case, complete with a wall-sized bulletin board with strings connecting from one principal in the story to another.
Jones has smartly constructed their film as a puzzle, with one contact leading to another, with the larger picture slowly coming into complete focus. Promising leads often turn into dead ends until they catch a break and land a meeting with Joe Abrams and Walt Bilofsky, the two surviving founders of Software Toolworks, each of whom had a hand in the creation of Mavis. Though the pair have little to say about their years-ago deal with L’Esperance, their encouragement – along with Jones’ dogged determination – lights a fire under both women, bringing them tantalizingly close to L’Esperance until fate intervenes.
In the course of their journey, Jones and Ross, who each identify as queer, take a path unique as they are; tapping their contacts in the gay community, their search takes them to follow unexpected leads, from meditations and seances to a gloved tea party with nonbinary Scottish writer Shola von Reinhold. Though few of these experiences bring them any closer to finding the truth about Mavis, they do reveal much about the journey of personal growth that making the film has provided them both.
Like the similarly-structured “Searching for Sugar Man,” the documentary that “Mavis Beacon” most closely resembles, the search for someone who may or may not be alive becomes the compelling narrative through-line for the doc. But, unlike that earlier film where the result of the filmmakers’ search comes at its climax, here it is resolved at the 70-minute mark. It is at that point that the themes that were at the film’s periphery – Jones and Ross’ growth as queer individuals, as well as growing concerns in the tech world over AI, digital footprints, and the use of deep fakes – come to the fore. To be sure, some of the issues raised are worth discussing, particularly that of Black presentation in the digital realm; but, without the compelling narrative of the filmmakers’ search, they land as more as tangents, ending the journey on a less than satisfying note.
Still, the film ends on a hopeful note: even as the lights are dimmed on the Seeking Mavis Beacon office, calls keep coming in on the Mavis hotline, with fans expressing how much she meant to them. In their hearts, at least, Mavis Beacon lives on.
