As technology reinvents itself at an increasingly rapid pace and trend cycles shorten, nostalgia has tightened its grip on millennials and Zoomers. While our parents’ generation recalls the “good old days” before cell phones, we use technology to reminisce over… older technology. We mourn the loss of defunct social networks and Flash games, wax poetic about the “Frutiger Aero aesthetic” of the Aughts, and purchase wired headphones and digital cameras to harken back to supposedly simpler times. Though emotionally resonant, all this fetishization of outmoded tech and software can feel a little aimless, trapping us in a recursive cycle of “remember when” and “if only.” That’s why Seeking Mavis Beacon, a Sundance documentary directed by Jazmin Jones and distributed by Neon, feels so fulfilling.
It employs nostalgia as a means to an end, fueling forward-thinking discussions about representation, digital footprint, and the privacy that even public figures are owed. The public figure here, of course, is Renée L’Espérance, a Haitian immigrant to the US who was “discovered” by the execs at software developer Toolworks while manning the perfume counter at Saks Fifth Avenue, circa 1986.
They offered her $500 to play the role of Mavis Beacon, a young Black professional, for a program that would teach consumers to type their way to success in a society where digital literacy was suddenly in demand (the program was aptly titled Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing).
From the late 80s through the 2000s, her likeness was so ubiquitous that many believed Beacon and L’Espérance were one and the same. Google “L’Espérance” today and you’ll find remarkably little info – no social media accounts, no “look at her now” articles. Upon realizing this, filmmaker Jazmin Jones – once a pupil of Beacon herself – set out to track her down, with teenage “cyber doula” and archivist Olivia McKayla Ross by her side.
The word “seeking” is not metaphorical here. Seeking Mavis Beacon is not just an emotional voyage through memory or the annals of the World Wide Web (although the film replicates the rush of going down an internet rabbit hole in the best way) – Jones and Ross are trying to find this woman. Passersby are stopped in the street. Doors are knocked on. Plane tickets are purchased. The documentary grippingly and self-referentially evokes the true crime genre, in the sense that Jones and Ross do some heavy detective work, but there’s nothing punitive about their mission. Their intent is to give L’Espérance the opportunity to tell her side of the story – and, if she would prefer to cede the mic, honor her decision to do so.
Seeking Mavis Beacon also shines with Jones’ adeptness at combining mediums to craft cyber collages that comment on the documentation process itself. The director stylizes segments of the film as if we’re watching Jones’ cursor move across a computer screen: the Windows XP wallpaper lurks in the background as she opens folders to pull up pertinent footage. Jones intercuts interviews with media scholars, the original Toolworks developers themselves, and their associates with B-roll of the women hanging out and investigating.
Occasionally, the filmmaker uses a viral video to punctuate a point of particular importance. Had a less skilled director used this technique, it might come across as trite. Through Jones’ lens, it mimics the way we engage with technology in an ever-plugged-in world, a million tabs open in our brains at any given moment.
Although Seeking Mavis Beacon is anchored by the filmmakers’ central quest and appreciation for L’Espérance’s legacy, the documentary never feels as if it was reverse-engineered to follow a pre-planned arc. We truly get the sense that Jones and Ross are willing to take us anywhere their case might lead them. They platform an array of perspectives: even as they celebrate the impact of L’Espérance’s contribution to culture, they hold space for the opinion that Beacon’s creation might reflect the tendency to associate helpful technology with female personas due to stereotypes of women as servile and non-threatening. The fact that Beacon is a woman of color adds another layer here.
They’re also unafraid to document unexpected hurdles: for example, they return to their studio after a trip to realize it’s been ransacked. Perhaps most moving is the vulnerability they demonstrate in capturing their friendship. Not only is it a moving testament to their chemistry as collaborators, it also underscores the power of technology to uplift and unite – under the right circumstances.
Do Jones and Ross ultimately find what they’ve been looking for? I’ll maintain some mystery for the reader, but I will affirm that the film is a fulfilling foray into the making of a modern myth. I keep thinking back to a scene where Jones meets a man who posed for a promotional photo with Beacon as a boy. Together, they recreate the tableau, holding hands as they walk toward some unknown destination. This scene encapsulates everything that makes Seeking Mavis Beacon shine: the fusing of past and present, the dissection of familiar images, the rebellious reconstruction of history, the question of where to go next.
Seeking Mavis Beacon is streaming now on multiple platforms.
