SEEKING MAVIS BEACON Trailer: Two Women Go Hunt for a Software Icon in Sundance Documentary

An entire generation of people grew up with Mavis Beacon. The Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing software was revolutionary in teaching millions of people how to type in the late 20th century when computers became more accessible and available to the public. But how much do we know about her? And even though a woman appeared on the cover of its box, does that mean Mavis Beacon is actually real? In the new documentary Seeking Mavis Beacon, which premiered at this year’s Sundance in the NEXT section, filmmaker and archivist Jazmin Jones teams with co-investigator Olivia McKayla Ross to search for the unsung cultural icon, while questioning notions of digital security, AI, and Black representation in the digital realm. Ahead of its late August release, NEON has unveiled the official trailer.

In her review from Sundance, Bears Rebecca Fonte wrote “pulls us back into those days of the later 80s, reexamining the legacy of not just the software, but the woman on the cover of the software box, the so-called Mavis Beacon. The personal and engaging, sometimes extremely tangential, journey she makes reveals much about the power that putting a woman of color on a software box had for a generation of children looking for role models… Though they are able to snag sit-downs with nearly everyone important in the creation of the Mavis Beacon mythology, the woman on the box remains elusive. But this film is as much a story of the discovery of the past as it is a story of the discovery of self. Both Jones and Ross are at a crossroads in their life and this project takes on a much deeper cultural significance as they begin considering questions of digital security and Black representation… Seeking Mavis Beacon is as thought-provoking a film as I’ve seen in a long time, and made me laugh out loud upwards of 25 times, which is never expected in a documentary. Although we may never get the chip off our shoulders from the parental abandonment that we overcame, Generation X will always have its substitute heroes, and this documentary is a worthy expression of gratitude to one of the great ones.

Seeking Mavis Beacon opens in select theaters August 30, before expanding nationwide. Watch the trailer below.

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