TITLE: Seeking Mavis Beacon
Section: NEXT
Director: Jazmin Renée Jones
Logline: Launched in the late ’80s, educational software Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing taught millions globally, but the program’s Haitian-born cover model vanished decades ago. Two DIY investigators search for the unsung cultural icon, while questioning notions of digital security, AI, and Black representation in the digital realm. In her directorial debut, Jazmin Renée Jones’ embraces outspoken questioning. Jones turns the camera onto herself and co-investigator Olivia McKayla Ross, foregrounding their investigatory process and supportive friendship.
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Distributor: Neon
Panelists: Jazmin Renée Jones (director/lead investigator), Olivia McKayla Ross (investigator/assoc. producer)
First screening: Saturday, Jan. 20
Key quote: “This is my first feature film, and I would really encourage every filmmaker, especially documentary filmmakers to put themselves in front of the camera. I think it’s interesting, we talk about the character of Mavis Beacon and we try to get more nuance to the character of Renée Esperance, but in the course of making this, Olivia and I had to kind of reduce ourselves down to characters as well.” (Jazmin Renée Jones)
“There’s a sense of a lot of people’s first encounters with artificial intelligence at a really pivotal time, both in school in terms of the ages of people who might’ve been using it and the novelty of the technology to kind of house what’s a new technology in the body of a dark-skinned black woman in order to make it more acceptable or easier to integrate.” (Olivia McKayla Ross)
The Deadline Studio at Sundance ran from January 19-22 at 608 Main Street, when the cast and creatives behind the best and buzziest titles in this year’s lineup joined Deadline’s festival team to discuss their movies and the paths they took to get to Park City.
Thank you to our sponsors McGee & Co., Final Draft, Portrait Creative Network, and Courser.