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Seeking Mavis Beacon, dir. Jazmin Jones, US 2024, 102 mins., English, 15
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Filmmaker Jazmin Jones and cyber doula Olivia McKayla Ross film their DIY investigation to uncover the woman behind the face of ‘Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing’, an educational software programme developed in the 1980s.
Its defining features permanently live on in the filmmakers’ collective memory–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 3in-long acrylic fingernails that overlaid on screen, clattering 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. What became of the influential cover model who vanished decades ago? Their sleuthing uncovers a shocking revelation. What follows leads Jones and Ross to question, in the age of AI and technological omnipresence, who does our image really belong to?
Its defining features permanently live on in the filmmakers’ collective memory–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 3in-long acrylic fingernails that overlaid on screen, clattering 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. What became of the influential cover model who vanished decades ago? Their sleuthing uncovers a shocking revelation. What follows leads Jones and Ross to question, in the age of AI and technological omnipresence, who does our image really belong to?
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04:10 pm
Wed, 14 May 2025
Cinema 1
06:30 pm
Thu, 15 May 2025
Cinema 2
02:15 pm
Fri, 16 May 2025
Cinema 2
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Cinema 1
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- We have 1 wheelchair allocated space with a seat for a companion
- All seats are hard back, have a crushed velvet feel and they do not recline
- These are our seat size dimensions: W 42 x D 45 x H 52
- Arm rest either side of the seat dimensions: L 27 x W 7 x H 20
for the following requirements:
- We have unassigned seating. If you require a specific seat, please reserve this in advance
- Free for visitors where ticket prices are a barrier, please email
Cinema 2
- Both our Cinemas have step free access from The Mall and are accessible by ramp
- All seats are hard back, have a crushed velvet feel and they do not recline
- These are our seat size dimensions: W 42 x D 45 x H 52
- Arm rest either side of the seat dimensions: L 27 x W 7 x H 20
for the following requirements:
- We have a removable seat to create a wheelchair allocated space, please contact to organise this prior to the date and time of the screening
- We have unassigned seating. If you require a specific seat, please reserve this in advance
- Free for visitors where ticket prices are a barrier, please email
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