With a healthy dose of heart and fantasy, the Sundance documentary Finding Mavis Beacon follows two young black women who dedicate themselves to finding the original model for Mavis Beacon teaches typing. If you touched a computer in the '80s or '90s, chances are Mavis helped you get comfortable with a keyboard. Or at the very least, you might remember her from the show's original cover from 1987: a smiling, elegant black woman in a cream-colored outfit. She was the epitome of style and professional confidence – it felt like you could be as capable as her if you bought this program.
It's not a spoiler to say that "Mavis Tag" didn't really exist – it was a marketing idea hatched by a bunch of white dudes from Silicon Valley. But the program's cover star was real: Her name was Renée L'Espérance, a Haitian model who was discovered while working at Saks Fifth Avenue in Los Angeles. After his image helped make Mavis Beacon teaches typing After success, she withdrew from the spotlight and reportedly returned to retire in the Caribbean.
The documentary's director and screenwriter, Jazmin Jones, and her collaborator, Olivia McKayla Ross, take these basic details and set out in search of L'Espérance like two digital detectives. From their base in a dilapidated Bay Area office – surrounded by technological ephemera, a variety of artworks and images of influential black women – they lay out the timeline reported by L'Espérance, follow the leads and even hold a spiritual ceremony to try to connect with. the model.
I won't say if the couple ends up finding L'Espérance because it's the journey that makes Finding Mavis Beacon such a joy to watch. Both Jones and Ross grew up with the typing program and felt a kinship with the character Mavis Beacon. It was the first program to prominently feature a black woman on the cover (a move that reportedly caused some suppliers to cut back on orders), making it seem like the tech world was a place where young women black people could really integrate. Beacon's digital hands also appear. on the screen, as if gently guiding your fingers to the correct letters and positioning.
To help uncover more details about Mavis Beacon's fate, Jones and Ross put together . Some of these calls are featured in the film and clearly show that his digital presence inspired many people. The film opens with references to Beacon across culture, including one of my favorite passages from Abbott Elementary School, where Quinta Brunson's overachieving teacher is far too excited to spot the typing icon in a school crowd. It reminded me of my own childhood experience with Mavis Beacon teaches typing, spending free periods at school and free time at home trying to speed up my typing. In college, typing was as natural as breathing. And yes, I would have freaked out too if I had seen the real Beacon in person.
While the documentary doesn't seem out of place at Sundance, known for its innovative projects, it also sometimes feels like experimental media aimed at YouTube or an art exhibit filled with incredibly cool young people. (At one point, Ross attends a farewell ceremony for one of his friends' dead laptop, which took place in an art space filled with people dressed in white. That's the kind of (hip weirdness that will either turn you off this movie or make you enjoy it more.)
Jones shows us screen recordings of her own office, where she may be watching a TikTok next to her notes. Instead of a full-screen video chat with another person, we sometimes just see a FaceTime window (and sometimes it mirrors Jones' own image looking at the screen). Find the Mavis tag tells its story in a way that digital natives will find natural, without being locked exclusively into screens like the .
As is the case with many first features, the film could benefit from some narrative tightening. Jones and Ross' investigation stalls at several points, and we often find ourselves drifting as they consider their next steps. The couple also seems too close to the story at times, or at least that's how it seems when we see Jones crying begging to meet L'Espérance.
But I would say that is also part of the charm of Finding Mavis Beacon. Jones and Ross are not real crime podcast hosts looking to create content out of controversy. These were young women who found comfort in one of the few faces in technology who looked like them. With this film, Jones and Ross could also be an inspiration to a new generation of underrepresented technicians.
This article was originally published on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/seeking-mavis-beacon-review-sundance-documentary-140049830.html?src=rss
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