Get the latest tech news

Seeking Mavis Beacon is a wild Sundance doc about the search for a lost tech icon

With a healthy dose of heart and whimsy, the Sundance documentary Seeking Mavis Beacon follows two young Black women who are devoted to finding the original model for Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing..

From a home base in a rundown Bay Area office – surrounded by tech ephemera, a variety of art pieces and images of influential black women – they lay out L'Esperance's reported timeline, follow leads and even host a spiritual ceremony to try and connect with the model. The film opens with references to Beacon throughout culture, including one of my favorite bits from Abbott Elementary, where Quinta Brunson's over-achieving teacher is far too excited to spot the typing icon in a school crowd. While the documentary doesn't seem out of place at Sundance, which is known for innovative projects, it also sometimes feels like a piece of experimental media meant for YouTube or an art show filled with impossibly cool twenty-somethings.

Get the Android app