Releasing in the UK by Tape Collective on 9 May 2025.

A dynamic mash-up of investigative documentary, cyber-feminism and memes, Seeking Mavis Beacon follows two chronically online filmmakers Jazmin Jones and Olivia McKayla Ross, as they embark on a DIY investigation to uncover the woman behind the face of ‘Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing’.

An educational software programme launched in late 1987, Mavis Beacon quickly assumed pride of place on home PC desks. Its defining feature was the elegant, smiling Black woman in the cream suit marching off to her high-rise job on the cover of the package and the Black hands with 3inch - long acrylic fingernails, overlaid on the screen that clattered as Beacon typed in tandem with her users. Retailers in the 80s were convinced a software programme featuring a dark-skinned Black woman wouldn’t sell, but it ended up becoming one of the most successful and lucrative educational products of all time.

Mavis Beacon’s image lives permanently in the collective memory of both filmmakers, who cite Beacon as a childhood hero. However, as they begin their journey to uncover the truth behind Mavis Beacon, the digital wormhole they travel through reveals shocking revelations, as the documentary becomes an exploration of big tech, AI and Black representation online, with the filmmakers left to question who really controls the image of the woman that has influenced their lives and careers.

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