Seeking Mavis Beacon

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‘Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing' permanently lives on in the collective memory of filmmakers Jazmin Jones and Olivia McKayla Ross. 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 3inch - long acrylic fingernails, overlaid on the screen that clattered 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?

This event is taking place at Hyde Park Picture House, as part of our season The Stories We Tell, presented by Leeds Heritage Theatres.