If you ever wondered what became of Mavis Beacon — the fictitious typing instructor featured on the Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing computer programs in the 80s and 90s — you’ll want to check out the upcoming documentary Seeking Mavis Beacon. Neon will produce the documentary that investigates the disappearance of Mavis Beacon while reexamining the legacy of “one of the most influential Black women in technology.”
Jazmin Jones is on board to direct the feature. In a statement, Jones says, “Neon has been a perfect home for this project. They understood our positionality as Black femmes and share our interest in disrupting traditional documentary form. The trusting relationship we have with Neon has exceeded my expectations of the possibilities for a first time Black queer nonbinary filmmaker — it’s been a blessing.”
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Neon will produce with Guetty Felin, who’s credited as an independent filmmaker, teacher, film curator, and co-founder of the multicultural film company BelleMoon Productions. Olivia McKayla Ross is also co-producing.
“One of the most influential Black women in technology is a figment of our collective imagination,” the official website states. “Mavis Beacon was invented by the Co-Founder of MySpace to sell the world’s most popular typing software, but the real woman she was modeled after disappeared in 1995. Seeking Mavis Beacon poses critical questions regarding anthropomorphization and the consumption of marginalized bodies in the tech industry, while reimagining the legacy of a missing historical figure.”
Who Is Mavis Beacon?
NEON
Mavis Beacon is not a real person. In 1987, The Software Toolworks published an instructional typing program dubbed Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, and they had simply used a model to represent the fictitious instructor on the packaging. The first model chosen to represent Mavis was Haitian model Renée L’Espérance. Beacon’s name comes from the singer Mavis Staples, whom one of the developers was a fan of, and the word beacon, alluding to her role as a guide for typing.
Because Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing had been used to teach millions how to better improve their typing skills, she had often been thought of as a real person. Though that’s not the case, there are many people with memories of having Mavis as an instructor. Director Jazmin Jones had previously told Filmmaker Magazine how important it was to revisit the fictitious instructor.
“I do have problems with the idea of a Black woman being in a perpetual role of servitude, but, also, y’all made something brilliant that touched me as a young girl. They weren’t necessarily thinking about representation when they put her on the game. It was marketing—they knew it would get folks to pick it up. But it’s a different public conversation now in 2021,” Jones said at the time.
An official release date hasn’t been announced for the Seeking Mavis Beacon documentary, but that can’t be too far away now that Neon has picked up the film. For more information about Seeking Mavis Beacon and its filmmakers, you can visit the official website at SeekingMavisBeacon.com.
