Synopsis
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.
Directed by Jazmin Jones
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.
i’m just really lonely. i’m just really lonely
utterly endeared to and devastated by this. loved the e-girl investigation, the use of internet meme as emotional shorthand, the communal witchy atmosphere. loved the ideas this puts forth about black girls searching for meaning and belonging, but simultaneously pained to watch that belonging get denied at every turn. bittersweet that a form of that rejection comes from another black woman, one who’s already been stripped of her autonomy and spent decades trying to reclaim it, who doesn’t want to be perceived or recognized, even by the people who might genuinely cherish her. this really encapsulates what it is to be a black girl in internet purgatory. so fascinating, so gutting
Note to first-time documentarians: the assumption that your audience is more interested in you than your subject is often an incorrect one.
I wasn't sure about this one... but I was wrong. This is one of the best documentaries of the year: an academic inquiry, spiritual journey, artistic practice, and actual investigation into the identity of Mavis Beacon, and specifically the woman who served as the model for the software.
There are some BIG ideas in this: about why AI helper bots are all female ("servile fembots") and how could the image of Mavis Beacon both perpetuate a stereotype and offer important representation for Black children. About what it means to fade away in a digital landscape and the ethical questions of unearthing someone's privacy. About what it means to imbue tech with spirituality in a way that is distinctly Black and…
Full Disclosure: I'm old.
Like, old enough to remember life before the Internet and smartphones old.
And the filmmakers behind this experimental documentary are very, very young.
I'm only pointing this out to say there's a definite Gen Z energy here that I found simultaneously engaging and exhausting.
Probably similar to how I'd feel spending several hours hanging out with a bunch of college freshmen. Their wide-eyed idealism and youthful insistence on questioning anything and everything might be endearing and even thought-provoking, but only up to a certain point before I'd start to feel weary and in desperate need of a nap.
Following the efforts by these two young Black women to track down and honor the Haitian-born model who…
i also grew up with mavis beacon and she also taught me how to type. the premise of this documentary is so intriguing, but there's an odd sense of entitlement and possessiveness the filmmakers have over a woman they don't know. it borders on manipulative at the climax of the film when the model for mavis beacon's son makes it pretty clear that his mother is not interested in being involved in the project and one of the filmmakers starts crying and essentially begging to speak with her. if this had been a fictional feature film, it might be genius, but this style of documentary often comes off as masturbatory rather than informative.
"I was today years old when I found out that this woman was not a real person."
Oof. That was a mess. I'm actually in awe of how this was made and why Neon bothered to be a part of it. I don't say this lightly. There is a decent enough short film, perhaps around 22 minutes, buried within the bloated 102 minutes that make up this documentary. But as it stands, it's an unfocused stream of consciousness about two college-age students researching the software Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, the original model who portrayed her, and every intersecting tangent stemming from both points on a societal and philosophical level. All of that would have been incredibly interesting to dive into…
Genuinely, once they hit THAT dead end in their search, they should have realized this entire project needed to be scrapped. There is something so uncomfortable about the main characters in this... not being the woman who modeled for Mavis Beacon? I don't know; I just did not jive with the filmmakers at all, and their sense of entitlement to access someone else's life (Renée L'Espérance) or space (with the landlord giving them a free space to work out of).
I'm sure there's a good story somewhere in here, and there are fascinating parts, but as is, this entire thing would need a massive rework to be truly good. And, boy, is it confusing that Neon picked this thing up.
if you get it you fucking get it dude. the process and ephemera that go alongside the seeking are just as important as the sought. it’s vital that we to consider the structures (ie ‘colonial impulse’ as they put it) that permeate our minds when we want so badly to receive some sort of deliverable or prize for an experience. to deconstruct exactly how that leads to a satisfying or an unsatisfying ending for us, and why that is.
i’m obsessed w the modes of archive and research and editing!!!!!!!! i want to document like this.
have wanted to see this one since i first heard about it, i love an e-girl mystery!
excited to see more from both filmmakers in the future but there's always gonna be something uncomfortable about putting something into production before knowing whether your subject wants to be found or not -- reminds me a lot of the endless dialogue around missing richard simmons. but, jones and ross are asking a lot of questions about digital identity and aren't afraid to engage with this ethical discomfort.
the journey is worth it and it's refreshing to see a doc about tech made by internet natives! more women should be showing up at the houses of silicon valley cucks and asking questions.
It takes real effort to make a truly bad documentary. Even if you (the viewer) aren't interested in the topic or even disagree with the thesis, a doc is usually at least informative and interesting on some level. Seeking Mavis Beacon gets it all wrong in some pretty baffling ways.
Back in the day, I worked mall-based retail at the defunct software store Babbage's. On those shelves, I stocked, recommended, and sold Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing... a popular edutainment title. On the cover was Mavis Beacon herself, a pretty young Black woman who I assumed was huge in the field of Big Typing. Years later, I learned she was fictional... that the Software Toolworks made a typing game and needed…
A spiritual sequel to The Watermelon Woman I didn’t know we needed. A non-fiction coming of age parable for being Black and femme on the internet . Something like watching theory become practice in real time (shoutout to Hartman and critical fabulation). So much to say about memes as embodied knowledge, our parasocial relationships online, the right to opacity, Black folks relation to a tech-dominated society that needs us but doesn’t need us. What Jazmin, Olivia, and collaborators have crafted here is a very special, one of a kind film viewing experience that I can’t wait to re-watch and re-watch. Inspired and invigorating!