‘Seeking Mavis Beacon’ Director Jazmin Jones Investigates the Story of the World’s Most Famous and Fictitious Typing Teacher
22.01.2024 - 17:55
/ variety.com
Brent Lang Executive Editor Mavis Beacon taught the world to type. Starting in the late 1980s, a software program featuring the eponymous instructor drilled computer users on their keyboard skills, selling more than 10 million copies worldwide. But it often comes as a shock to find out that Beacon never really existed.
A triumph of the advertisers’ art, the typing teacher was an entirely fictional creation. And the image of Beacon that resonates most deeply, the photo of a Black woman in business attire that appears on the packaging, actually belongs to Renee L’Esperance, a Haitian model who was paid a measly $500 for her work and didn’t get to share in any royalties from the game’s success (she’d later sue when her image was altered on subsequent editions). Decades after the program debuted, Beacon’s outsized influence is being reexamined in “Seeking Mavis Beacon,” a documentary that premiered last weekend at the Sundance Film Festival.
In it, director Jazmin Jones and associate producer Olivia McKayla Ross explore the creation of the influential marketing campaign, as well as the impact that Beacon has had on tech history. Real or imagined, she did have a symbolic significance. People still try to book “Mavis” for speaking engagements, and there’s a cottage industry of deepfakes that show her getting shoutouts in Halle Berry’s Oscar acceptance speech or receiving honors from President Obama for her trailblazing work.
Initially, Beacon’s appeal, particularly in terms of L’Esperance’s appearance on the boxes of the program, was complicated. It varied depending on the consumer considering buying a copy of the typing tutorial. “Her Blackness was a part of the marketing,” Jones notes.
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