[ELEVATOR PITCH]
Filmmakers Jazmin Jones and Olivia McKayla Ross speak on their search for Renée L'Espérance, a Haitian woman whose likeness made Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing the most iconic keyboarding software of all-time
What Olivia Ross (Associate Producer) Says: The process of making the film — especially in the beginning and the research phase — was this attempt to reaffirm a legacy we believed mattered more than the dominant narrative was declaring. Mavis Beacon is the prototype for the way we understand what AI can do and the way so many people across the globe were introduced to personal computers. You cannot use a computer if you cannot type.
There's a small voice in my head that's like, “Are we blowing this up?” But the amount of people who have told Jaz and I that Mavis Beacon changed their lives is astronomical.
What Jazmin Jones (Director) Says: Mavis Beacon's legacy was one of representation, of Black excellence. But her story doesn't stop with the game selling 10 million copies. The updated legacy of Mavis Beacon that is inherently linked to Renée L'Espérance is one of refusal and fugitivity and reclaiming one's own autonomy in the face of being this role model.
When I first had this idea to make this film, I was very heavily referencing The Watermelon Woman. I had a template of a Black queer filmmaker and her friend looking for someone who had been forgotten by history. I knew if we're gonna be interviewing all of these white software developers, there's no guarantee that will inherently be cinematic. But Olivia and I and the world that we inhabit is colorful and whimsical — everything we touch as Black queer femmes is automatically made more beautiful. There are a lot of heavy thematics at play. If we integrated ourselves, it would be way more fun — not only for ourselves, but for the viewer as well. —As told to John Kennedy
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Seeking Mavis Beacon is now playing in limited theaters.
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