Seeking Mavis Beacon (2024)
Director: Jazmin Jones Run Time: 102 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2024
Starring: Jazmin Jones, Olivia McKayla Ross
Country: United States
Language: English
About the film:
World Premiere, 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
What ever happened to Mavis Beacon? That guiding question propels two intrepid electronic sleuths, Jazmin and Olivia, who dive into the cosmos as they hunt for the woman of Haitian descent who became the face of the 1980s-era popular educational software “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.”
“Thought provoking, bold, and vulnerable, you can’t help but cherish its early ambition as a necessary act of historical preservation.”
—Robert Daniels, RogerEbert
Through dynamic “desktop cinema,” observational footage, and interviews with artists, writers, and software designers, the investigation lifts the veil on how Mavis’s persona came to be. While highlighting ethical questions regarding representation, the film slowly becomes a celebration of glitch art’s legacy as a means for underrepresented people to deconstruct and reclaim notions of Queerness and Racialization.
About the filmmaker:
Jazmin Jones began her filmmaking journey while growing up in Fremont when she got involved with a Bay Area Video Coalition after school program. While studying at the New School, she worked as a producer and editor on music videos and commercials. She later worked for Marie Claire, taking the role of the publication’s entire video department. Seeking Mavis Beacon (2024) is Jones’ directorial debut.
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