![]() ![]() “With being Black, I feel like I’m at least being engaged in conversation and there’s space for me to think about what’s happening.” ![]() “It was nice to see a familiar face, and that’s priceless,” one Mavis fan explains in the film. If anything, it’s what drew Jones and Ross - and a handful of their interview subjects - to the character in the first place. That Mavis was one of the first Black faces in AI is not lost on the filmmakers one bit. The latter serves as an excellent shorthand for the filmmakers’ mental state, broadcasting the toll of their investigation as their quest grows more quixotic and unearths uncomfortable truths about identity, tech, and emotional labor. At points, Seeking takes on the qualities of a vlog or Tumblr post, following Jones and Ross as they assemble their headquarters in a defunct Oakland office space, recording their respective screens as they FaceTime, and superimposing some of the internet’s most iconic reaction videos in place of personal statements. Seeking follows the pair of “e-girl investigators” on their quest for the truth, but it’s a bit more than a straightforward documentary. Their efforts began as a grassroots investigation, complete with missing person flyers, a Mavis Beacon Tipline, and rituals designed to reach L’Espérance from the spiritual plane. Jones and Ross have dedicated the past five years to uncovering the mystery behind Mavis Beacon. It’s these questions that director Jazmin Jones and producer Olivia McKayla Ross hope to answer in Seeking Mavis Beacon, an unconventional documentary premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Olivia McKayla Ross and Jazmin Renée Jones set up shop in their offices. But does that make her any less significant, or L’Espérance any less deserving of recognition? More still are shocked to learn that, like Aunt Jemima or Betty Crocker, she was never actually real. Some claim to have encountered her at typing conventions. A sort of Mandela effect has grown around the character since. She hasn’t been seen in over 20 years, not by any of Software Toolworks’ founding members, and certainly not by anyone who’d been deluded into thinking that Mavis was a real person - despite the persistence of our collective memory. One photo shoot and a flat fee of $500 later, Mavis Beacon was born.īut what of L’Espérance? According to a decades-old piece in The Seattle Times, she’s never collected any residuals. Software Toolworks co-founder Joe Abrams, along with chairman Les Crane, commissioned her to model for their new course. ![]() Her likeness was borrowed from Renée L’Espérance, a Haitian-born woman discovered behind the cosmetics counter of a Saks Fifth Avenue. “Mavis” was actually the creation of Software Toolworks, a then-minor tech company that later became famous for their accessible, anthromorphized teaching program. Her impact cannot be overstated, even if she’s. She was one of the first Black female avatars in cyberspace, and has since become a fixture in the zeitgeist. The face of the typing program Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing! is known today as an unsung icon for Internet Babies. If you came of age somewhere between the late ’80s and the mid-’90s, it’s likely you owe a debt of some sort to Mavis Beacon.
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