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[mysterious music playing]
[Karen] Just because the clock strikes twelve,
doesn't mean it's midnight.
How do you break up the vision but keep it whole?
It's like, for every step of that journey,
it's just a puzzle piece.
[music continues]
[Karen] When you're making a puzzle,
you got that reference picture right there.
But you're putting these pieces together,
but you're not losing sight of that.
And every piece, even though it's not that whole picture,
every piece represents the entirety
and the-the totality of that picture.
How do you do that?
How do you move forward
and keep your dream while you, you have to...
you have to fragment it?
And even though you see it, it's...
you still got to put it together.
But you can't put it together if you don't keep it whole.
[Jazmin Jones] Mm, it's a conundrum.
-Right? [laughs] -Yeah. [laughs]
[Karen] You're on the right path.
You're doing the right things.
You're thinking the right thoughts.
-Right? -[Jazmin] Mm-hmm.
[Karen] So you're able to embrace your dream
with every step.
So I think that's where you're at.
You're-- you're, like, in that space
where dream becomes vision and vision becomes reality.
And you'll have something to go back and look at
when you're ready.
And it-- Nothing may come of it.
But at least you have a place to begin from.
Mm-hmm.
You got to get your kibbles and bits.
[Mavis Beacon] Relax.
Take one deep breath and let it all out.
You are ready for lessons.
[trilling beeping]
[Jazmin and Olivia] Welcome
to the Seeking Mavis Beacon hotline.
Our investigators are standing by.
[Jazmin] We want to hear what you remember
about Mavis Beacon.
After the tone, tell us what you know.
[Olivia] And don't forget to leave your name,
location and contact information.
-[Jazmin] Bye-bye. -[Olivia] Bye!
Hi, guys. Happy Memorial Day.
And in this video, I'm gonna show you
how I learned how to type so fast
from "Mavis Beacon."
"Mavis Beacon."
[boy] "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing."
Oh, my God. That's just some MLG shit right here.
First of all, she was a typing champ.
She is me.
[Derek Kelly] This is "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing."
It's a typing program.
It was created in 1987.
Is that "Mavis Beacon"?
[Ms. Schwartz] Yeah. This place is the best. [chuckles]
This is a film about trickery and fraud.
About... lies.
[newscaster] Mavis's remarkable, nearly seven-decade career
was honored this month at the Kennedy Center.
Mavis has done it all
and worked with just about everybody.
When people heard that deep old soul
coming out of that computer, they wept.
Which, understandably, concerned her.
But her mother...
[people laughing]
Her mother told her, "Mavis, they're happy."
♪ Where mothers can't see... ♪
Mavis has, um, deep love and affection
and parental guidance and support.
♪ I believed those things... ♪
She's an icon, she's a legend, and she is the moment.
Now, come on, now.
Give it up for Mavis Beacon!
[cheering, applause]
Is Mavis Beacon still alive? Is Mavis Beacon a real person?
[robotic voice] I don't know what's reality,
but I assure you,
I'm as real as anything or any person.
What's a scam that's become so normalized
that we don't even realize it's a scam anymore?
I was today years old when I found out that this woman
was not a real person.
[Reed Galin] Many callers expressed dismay
that cyberspace seems more like the Twilight Zone.
Are you going to be like the masses?
Are you going to allow words to hypnotize you?
[all] No!
A few models have faced the cover of
"Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing,"
but Renée Lesperance was the first. Clock it.
[man] While Renée effectively disappeared by 1990,
after moving back to the Caribbean,
her character, Mavis Beacon, went on to become
an internationally-known star of sorts.
[in Creole]: We're looking for Mavis Beacon
an important woman in technology
aka Renee L'Esperance
People of Jacmel, how are we doing?
[man continues speaking Creole]
[Mr. Jones] What do you need this for?
[Jazmin giggling] For my film.
[Mr. Jones] Okay.
[Mr. Jones] Well, I hope it's in here.
[Jazmin] What you got in there?
[Mr. Jones] Treasure trove.
[Jazmin] We're looking for a tiny game
of "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing."
Does it ring any bells?
-You remember being at Costco. -I remember.
I remember buying it at Costco.
[Jazmin] Why'd you buy it?
Because I had to type, and I-- I wasn't a fast typer,
so I was trying--
Oh, so it was for you. It wasn't for me.
Well, it was for us.
-It was a family experience. -It was a family experience.
Did you use it?
I might've tried. I don't...
-I guess I might've tried. -Oh, wow.
This might be a hot-- -That's a game changer.
You got a disc right there.
You got The Matrix on PlayStation!
See, this is promising. What else you got?
What is that? Oh, that-- Oh, Dave Matthews.
[both chuckle]
Is there-- Watch it be empty. Eh! I knew it.
-Here's your little friend. -Oh, little guy!
[high-pitched] "What the hell are you doing?
How you been? It's been a while!"
I missed you. [laughs]
Okay, all right, all right.
Okay, so you remember purchasing her.
I don't remember when I got divorced, to be honest.
-I was in the fourth grade. -Is that what it is?
I'm not real good with dates and times and stuff.
[Jazmin] If I were "Mavis Beacon..."
[both laughing]
-Where would I be? -Wouldn't be in here.
Yeah, I don't know. But this is--
This is the kind of box it will be in, you know?
That is the kind of box it would be in.
[Jazmin] Now I'm questioning my own memory.
We don't find it, I guess I have to contend
with losing a piece of history.
All right. I'll take the pink ones for Olivia.
[Mr. Jones] All righty.
Yeah, you got to meet my collaborator who's in town.
[Mr. Jones] What does a collaborator do?
She's, like, a 19-year-old coder, tech--
She's super tech-savvy and is helping me
be thorough in my shit.
All right.
Appreciate you for helping me anyway.
Mm-hmm.
[soft music playing]
[harp music playing]
[Jazmin] So, the video game, bro-- nonprofit bros,
they said we can use their storage warehouse.
-Or a room in it. -[Olivia] Okay. I see.
Do they have, like, Wi-Fi or...?
[Jazmin] No, we have to get, we have to get our own router.
Um, the zoom is up top here.
I'm doing Face ID with a face full of camera, man.
Uh...
[Jazmin] The tongue out helped you Face ID.
[Olivia] Yeah. Uh-huh. Uh...
So...
[upbeat music playing]
[Olivia] Introduce yourself.
I'm a filmmaker and an archivist.
[Olivia] Ooh.
[laughing]
[Oliva] Fancy.
-Fancy. - I don't know.
I think it, it's made more serious by all of this.
What do you want to major in?
[man] What you're doing now?
You're gonna major in what you're doing already?
[Jazmin] Yeah. Filmmaking. [chuckles]
...have any pictures of my daughter graduating
without this in the middle of her face.
[Jazmin] Too bad.
It's always shots of this, like this.
Hi, Jaz. How you doing?
Good job, Jaz!
[air horn blows]
I'm from the Bay Area originally.
Yeah. I was raised in the suburbs of Silicon Valley.
And my family,
we had this one desktop computer.
And I spent a lot of time after school on Napster,
playing "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing."
I don't know what it was specifically about her
that I gravitated to, but I have very clear memories
of these Black hands that would be on-screen.
And I think that interest in technology
carried on into my filmmaking practice.
And eventually, I started asking myself,
"Who is Mavis Beacon?"
And not only "Who is Mavis Beacon?"
"Why was she Black?"
[girl] Okay! What! [laughs]
One thing that I really, really want to encourage
is treating our conspiracy theories
as intuition.
[Jazmin] This was also around the time
that I became familiar with you
and your theory around cyber doulas.
[laughing]
Mm.
I definitely, like, could write a handbook
on, like, how to track down the personal information
of, um... of people online.
I mean, the Internet is, like,
where I learned about, like, hacking and cybersecurity
and, like, computer programming.
I kind of just, like, fell into it.
Like, I had access to the Internet
at an age when no one should have access to the Internet.
But at that time, in the early 2000s,
people didn't know how badly they needed
to keep their kids offline. [chuckles]
Hi.
-[scattered greetings] -[giggling]
My name is Olivia Ross.
I'm an eighth grader at the Q004 school in Queens,
and I have been interested in, in technology
since I was about 11.
[woman] Expert computer coder,
she volunteers here
to help girls feel comfortable in a new realm.
Olivia, you see yourself as going into technology,
maybe computer science.
What got you interested in this?
My brother brought home this book on HTML and CSS,
and he wouldn't let me see it.
This really, pretty much changed my life.
He told me to google it.
[harp music playing]
The first metaphor that I was given for, like,
care work and how to, like, hold people
through difficult transitions was through
the work of doulas and the work of midwives.
So, yeah, "cyber doula" literally came
off the cuff, because, like,
what-what-what other word would I grab for
to denote someone who takes on that work of, like,
stewarding these, like, healthy relationships
between people and their technologies?
[gong ringing]
If I can address Renée Lesperance,
I would say...
Oh, that's-- Okay, my first thought is, "You did it."
You know? Like, "You reached somebody.
Um, you inspired a young Black kid..."
[laughs]
"...to type and to feel embodied with whatever aspiration I had."
Right? Like...
It was nice to see a familiar face,
and that's priceless.
[Olivia] Hey. Hello.
Um, I called about an order, um, placed for Olivia Ross.
[woman] The black and white print--
I think black-and-white pages, you have 16 pages.
That's minus the two files, which I'm unable to open.
I think the file is corrupt.
So you might have to send me a new file for those two.
[Olivia] Okay.
[Mandy Williams] Would my relationship to computers,
um, would my relationship to computers have been, like,
as trusting if Mavis hadn't been there?
Um...
And, like, what does that mean?
The people who I was learning from,
like, the images of the instructors
and, like, what is called to mind
when we think of somebody being instructive
or, um, informative
or, like, the authority on how to do something,
it wasn't... it wasn't dark-skinned Black women.
Um, and, like, I remember being kind of, like, stoked,
in part because I was like, "Now y'all gonna learn
from the Black woman, Mavis Beacon,
and she's gonna teach you how to type, so..."
-[engine revving] -[tires squealing]
Why would y'all to do that when we get out the car?
That's hella weird! [laughs]
-Y'all have a good one. -What you do?
[Jazmin] Does the name Mavis Beacon
mean anything to you?
-Mavis Beacon. -[Olivia] You know Mavis Beacon?
[Maya] She's, like, a digital Black woman,
and she's like, "Welcome. I'll teach you how to type."
You get up there, you start out like this,
and the next thing you know, you like this, so...
Did you think she was real?
-Um, excuse me? -[man] Hey, you want weed?
No, I don't need weed, thank you.
[Jazmin] You ever heard the name Mavis Beacon?
-That's you? -No, she did...
She's a typing teacher.
She's like the Aunt Jemima of technology.
Oh, yeah.
And so we in here. We got a headquarters.
We trying to figure it out.
You're trying to get to the bottom of it?
[Jazmin] We gonna get to the bottom of it, sir, you know?
-You got it? -Yeah.
Okay.
Oh, my God.
[answering machine beeps]
[woman 1] Hello.
I am wondering what's up with the Mavis Beacon hotline.
[beep]
[man 1] Your, eh, your note.
I thought I saw Mavis "Bacon"
somewhere over here in, uh, Northern Virginia.
Just letting you know.
[beep]
[man 2] When I think of Mavis Beacon,
I'm walking into a cold room.
You turn the computer on, and there's this lady.
And you don't really realize that she's, like, a real person.
[man 3] The software was so interactive.
It was cool because it, like, it felt like the future.
[woman 2] She taught me so much shit, y'all.
I was, like-- I was king on that shit.
I was going HAM diddly,
typing as fast as I could.
[woman 3] Without her,
I would not have been able to hold a job
just doing the little typing I was able to do,
going on the computer, learning some skills.
I wouldn't have been able to do that without her.
[Mandy] Black women typing,
Black women with acrylics typing.
Like, there's something about the style
with which we play the keyboard.
And there's something about the way that we speak.
And so, you're layering these digital styles,
one on top of the other.
It's, in part, connected to this idea, for me, of,
just, like, Black women have a tremendous amount to say,
a tremendous frenzy, a brainstorm to process.
[laughing]
[Mandy] And so maybe that fluidity,
maybe she is the natural spokesmodel for that, you know?
[Lugga] Remember that computer program
that we used to learn in, like, elementary
on that big-ass computer?
So what they do to her?
♪ After I'm done, You gonna go see my brother ♪
♪ I'll put that on me, And I'll put that on Mama ♪
♪ They better leave me alone ♪
♪ Put one in your chest And it's two in the dome ♪
♪ They say The industry looking for me ♪
♪ Well, tell them bitches Here I come, yeah ♪
♪ I'll say whatever I feel ♪
♪ A nigga don't like it, Then tell him it's on ♪
♪ I'm still right here With my people, nigga ♪
♪ Lugga ain't selling His soul, no ♪
You know, she was Black, so it was like, man,
it was much easier for me to tend to veer towards her
or to follow her versus them then putting a white lady
as Mavis Beacon, and...
You know, not being racist or anything like that,
but that's why I took towards her.
With her being Black, I feel like
that I'm at least being engaged in conversation,
and there's space for me to,
to think about what's happening here, you know?
So, if she was white, then I,
I wouldn't think about it, unfortunately. I would just...
It would just be white noise. [laughs]
Yeah.
It'll be like, "White Noise Teaches Typing."
[all laughing]
[upbeat music playing]
[muttering indistinctly]
-There you go. -Thank you, Imani.
What flavor are we eating today?
-The lemon. -Lemon. Oh, wow.
-Yeah. -Appreciate you.
-You ready, Imani? -Yeah.
I was born ready.
[Jazmin] This is Mavis Beacon. This is the woman...
[Mavis] Click here to start your typing lesson.
Oh, my God. This is the woman
who taught me how to type when I was eight. Um...
[Mavis] Click here to start your typing lesson.
You want to start our typing lesson, Imani?
Okay, let's see if we could... [laughs]
You're doing great, Imani. [laughing]
[Mavis] Let's practice these new keys
and remember to return--
[Jazmin] Do you think she's a real person?
-[Imani] Think so. -You think so?
-[Imani] Mm-hmm. -Why do you think so?
Because she looks real. See? Tada!
[Jazmin chuckles] What if I told you
that Mavis Beacon is not a real person?
[Imani] I would be running.
[Jazmin] You'd be what?
Running.
All right, well, Mavis Beacon isn't a real person, Imani.
-No! -[laughing]
-[Imani screams, laughs] -[speaking gibberish]
-[Jazmin playfully] Ooh! -[laughs, screams]
[Imani laughing] Stop! No!
[yelling playfully]
[laughing] Wait, Imani! No!
[man] There was, like, some mass hysteria
relating to Mavis Beacon,
where a lot of people thought that they remembered
her being on talk shows.
1988 was such a great, great year for you.
[man] And, like, receiving awards,
like Nobel Peace Prizes and shit,
but, yeah, that wasn't, uh, that wasn't real.
She's not real.
[Olivia] "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing's"
popularity skyrocketed and by the early '90s
that people began experiencing a collective Mandela effect.
I'm like, "Mandela effect?
What the heck is a Mandela effect?"
Some people have a very distinct memory
that Nelson Mandela was killed in prison in the late 1980s.
So that was the first recorded group remembering
of an event that did not match the historical record.
Wait, wait!
[mysterious music playing]
[Jazmin] So she hasn't been seen for...
How many years has that been?
2021. 1994.
[Olivia] It's 26 years.
[Jazmin] No one's reported any sightings
of Renée Lesperance, that we're aware of,
in 26 years.
Phew.
Okay, so I was thinking we could read the articles
and basically outline what it is that we know
and make a timeline.
Mm.
[Olivia] "Who wouldn't love Mavis Beacon?
"She's bright, attractive, helpful,
"the world's greatest typing teacher.
"But, and you'd better sit down for this,
she isn't real.
"She's a retired Caribbean-born fashion model
named Renée Lesperance."
[Jazmin] "Born into a well-to-do Haitian family,
she fled the Duvalier regime and wound up at the Saks."
[Olivia] "According to a 20-year-old story
in the 'Seattle Times,'
the last anyone had heard of Lesperance,
she was living a quiet life back in the Caribbean.
And she's probably not sleeping on stacks of money, either.
According to that story, she does not collect residuals."
[Jazmin] "Mavis was brought to life by Les Crane,
Walt Bilofsky and Joe Abrams.
'Three guys, three computers,
three beds, in four months' is how Bilofsky,
the main programmer, recalled it."
Three men in a bed in a garage.
The most Silicon Valley origin story ever.
Three men, one bed or three beds?
[laughs] Three beds.
"Abrams described Renée Lesperance
"as a stunning Haitian woman with three-inch fingernails.
"'She's our Betty Crocker.
She's our symbo of excellence.'"
Do we know, when did the shift happen
from three-inch-long fingernails to six-inch-long fingernails?
Yeah.
"Mental Floss" is the one that said six-inch fingernails.
Let's just go through.
What are-- What do we know to be true?
We know the location where they met Renée Lesperance.
We know that Les Crane walked in with Joe Abrams,
saw Renée Lesperance behind a perfume counter
or near a perfume counter at Saks Fifth Avenue.
[Olivia] And says,
"You should model for my program,
and I'm gonna pay you 500 dollars."
Sometimes Joe Abrams was present,
sometimes Joe Abrams was not.
Once Les Crane died,
it became Joe Abrams who was telling the story,
primarily, of "Mavis Beacon."
"Joe Abrams said that
when he last spoke to Renée Lesperance,
she was thrilled about the success
and had started to be recognized."
I don't trust anything Joe Abrams says,
but that would have been in 1996.
Yeah.
My, my first, uh, company was a computer software company,
and we were considered heretics in 1983
because we were actually selling our software.
Does the name Software...
Software Toolworks mean anything to you?
-Computer. Computer stuff. -Uh-huh.
It's the 1980s. Madonna is "Like a Virgin."
Shoulder protection is at an all-time high.
There was bleach-fried hair, wacky patterns,
an expansion in the algorithmic training for computers.
AI was rolling in a gold mine.
And then it died again.
And then it started back up in the '90s and 2000s, baby.
Some guy got beaten at chess by a computer.
Speech recognition thrived.
A robot started exhibiting human emotion.
[BINA48] What does it matter whether I'm human or robot?
I'm kind of both, you know?
I'll, like, transcend the boundaries.
Don't be prejudiced.
Okay.
Why have I never seen an AI that's a man?
Why is Siri and Alexa and, like...
"It's not an accident
that our technologies that function effectively
as caregivers or secretaries
are designed to have female voices."
Who has the power to shape the priorities
that we put in place when we're creating AI?
And who shapes the preferences?
And the coded gaze also reflects our prejudices.
[Bruce] Around the world,
there are not that many dark-colored-skinned robots.
In fact, this is maybe the only one,
and that's important.
It's important that we see ourselves reflected
in the... in the reality that's around us.
[BINA48] Whether they are real or artificial,
my feelings do get hurt,
and they feel totally real to me.
You'd have to lack all empathy to not accept my feelings,
which would make you kind of a monster, actually.
[woman] Bina48 is a kind of cagey, um, character.
Um, and one of the ways that I wanted
to interact with her was to ask her, "Who are your people?"
I think it's a trickster question
that can be either one that's welcoming
or one that kind of deflects,
um, someone's entry into a community.
And she couldn't get there for me.
Um, she's not ready yet.
When you start to ask a robot about love,
when you start to ask a robot about race,
the answers felt really flat to me, right?
Like, very politically correct.
And that just scared the crap out of me.
If that is the way
that Black people are being depicted in technologies,
especially in technologies made by people
who have really good aims in the long run,
that means we've got problems, right?
Like, in the future, we will be this flat thing,
unless we do something about trying to fill out
what it means to be
a Black person in this world, right?
[Jazmin] Who do you think Mavis Beacon's people are?
Whoa. Um, that's a question and a half, right?
'Cause in a way, I'm gonna say I'm Mavis's people.
Like, there's a part of me that,
"Oh, that was, like, this weird point of pride."
Right?
But then, "who are Mavis's people" in a deeper way
are the people who, who imagined her up, right?
Would you say that technology and their developers...
Like, how... how far, how close can it be?
If we had a really, really sharp knife, could we do it?
-Could we separate it? -Mm-hmm.
I think it's really hard to separate
the technologies from its developers,
'cause you're starting from a platform that we know
to contain biases and problems of history, right? Deeply.
So, small clusters of mostly white men still
making these systems that, um, we all, we all work with.
So then, the question for me becomes, "Well, what do we do?"
Like, how can we influence those systems?
[mysterious music playing]
[Olivia] I'm a bit confused.
That one article said that she was well-to-do in Haiti.
And then, there's another article
that said she was a retired model,
and another one that said that she'd never modeled before.
At first, it was like, "Ooh...
It'd be cool if we could talk to her."
And now it's like, "Is homegirl okay?"
[Jazmin] Yeah. We gonna have to hit up
some of these fucking white guys that live in the garage.
All right. Look at what you're working with now.
Oh.
[phone ringing]
[Walt voicemail] If you're not a telemarketer,
please leave a message.
I might not have recognized your Caller ID,
but if you're a real person, leave a message,
I'll call you back.
[beeps]
Hi, Walt, this is Jazmin Jones. Um...
I found your number online.
I'm working on a project paying homage to "Mavis Beacon."
Um, me and my collaborator Olivia
are huge, huge, huge fans of the game,
the Renée Lesperance versions of the game.
We figured that you might be somebody
who would know some information
about potentially how to get in contact with Renée?
I really hope you call me back. Thank you so much.
Bye.
Okay, cool. We're gonna save his name.
Walt Bilofsky.
[phone ringing]
[voicemail] Thank you for calling Saks Fifth Avenue.
[Olivia] Hi. Do you guys keep employee records?
-[woman] Say it again. -Renée Lesperance.
And we believe that she worked at the perfume counter
of Saks Fifth Avenue between the years of 1984 and 1986.
[woman] I-I have no idea, and I'm so sorry.
Is there, like, any record of celebrity visits? The...
[beeping]
Rude.
[Olivia] Mavis Beacon, she's, like,
one of the first consumer-facing AI assistants.
She predates Siri, Alexa, Cortana...
and all of these, like,
servile fembots in...
Mm-hmm.
...holding your hand and helping you, like,
[laughs] analyze your typing speed.
And so, for her to be the initial
blueprint or test subject for that relationship
of making something easier to accept, like,
what-- how does that land for you?
We have "Mavis Beacon," the software,
that's offered up to people to support
in that way that kind of advances whatever they are
versus being the thing that is advanced.
That, yes, you can learn from this.
It's not going to s-- uh, supersede you,
because it is a Black woman made for service
and not moving forward.
So, in that avatar, it feels to me, again,
historically, it feels corr-- like,
"historically correct" but not right.
-Congruent. [laughs] -Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Congruent with history, right?
There are these histories of Black women
supporting, holding, teaching,
and then somebody going off and having success
that is not Black, right?
Um, and that's what "Mavis Beacon "
feels like to me,
like, this software that is based on this idea.
[Jazmin screams] Ohh, my God!
[screaming, laughing]
[Olivia] It's not just detective work.
It's almost like... "knowledge protector."
[Jazmin] It's like knowledge-protecting archivist,
historian.
[Olivia] It's some kind of... it's like memory work.
It's really weird to not...
to see someone who's, like, so obviously, like,
important to history and, like,
to look for them and not, like, find them.
'Cause, like, you know-- you and I, like, we know, like,
in our heads and in our hearts that, like, this person,
like, should matter to history.
And the, like...
It's almost like...
It feels like, almost, like,
society is kind of, like, gaslighting us?
-Yeah, Super gaslighting. -Like, the...
Like the, like the absolute, like, radio silence of, like,
her and her story, and the fucking guys
who made the software, like,
just changing the details in how they even met her.
When we talk about this project and people are like,
"Oh, it's okay if you don't find her,"
like, that's such a weird thing to say.
-[Jazmin] That's such a weird-- -What?
Like, people will only ever say that about Black women.
[mysterious music playing]
[Jazmin] The last time anyone spoke about seeing Renée,
it would've been 26 years ago.
-[Portsha] Oh, my gosh. -And even then, they were like,
"I'm not quite sure where she is," so...
[Portsha] They just have no idea?
[Jazmin] Nobody knows.
It's like, it's a mystery.
-Right. -Real talk.
-Twenty-six years? -Twenty-six years.
We're hoping it's a happy mystery,
where she's just, like, a master of disguise
or something like that, you know?
I told you, you can go to Haiti and you don't...
you will not be found, if you really...
want to disappear.
That's true.
Thank you for the opportunity to be here
and to share these prayers, with the hope and intention
that, uh, these will fall on Renée's ears
and they will reach her heart.
Thank you.
[singing in foreign language]
[maraca shaking rhythmically]
[upbeat music playing]
[music continues]
[Sun Ra] If you're not a reality,
whose myth are you?
[crowd] If you're not a reality, whose myth are you?
[Sun Ra echoing] Whose myth are you?
[crowd] Whose myth are you?
[mysterious music playing]
[Kayla] My biggest emotional memory
of "Mavis Beacon" is one of failure.
It was like, "Have you been practicing your typing?"
And it's like, "Mavis, the answer is fucking no,
"I haven't, and you know that, I know that,
and I'm sorry that I've disappointed you."
[Jazmin] So, really, this is all just about
nothing is real in memory because I remembered.
You don't remember we owned the game.
No, I'm not...
It's like, if you were, like, "Did we own it?"
I don't feel strong enough to, like, bet you we didn't.
I just definitely wasn't playing it at home. [laughs]
I was playing it at school.
Memory's a funny thing.
I feel if, if I was in a trial right now,
I'd be like, "I don't know what's real."
[soft music playing]
Um, it's-it's really good.
Um, do you want to call Mom?
I-- Oh, yeah.
[Jazmin's mom] All right, so I'm sitting here.
We're doing worship right now. I was just texting Kayla.
I kept hearing "Daytona."
Daytona, Florida.
I don't know what that means,
but I was just getting "Daytona."
- So... -Maybe that's where Mavis is.
[Olivia] When I look up, like,
Renée Lesperance, like,
this is the most recent, I think.
[Jazmin] Let me see...
If she lived there the most recently,
there's more likelihood that someone would recognize her.
I think we need to print out a bunch of flyers
and write on the back of them, "Was this your neighbor?
We're trying to find this person."
And we'll just slip them under each door.
[soft music playing]
[automated voice] Camera recording.
[Jazmin] Hi. If you watch this recording,
we're looking for this woman.
We think she might have lived here in the early '90s.
Does the name Mavis Beacon mean anything to you?
-[woman] No, I'm sorry. -It's... No, it's fine.
[Jazmin] Is anybody else home
who might have lived here for a while?
[dog barking]
We're trying to find her. She's a famous typing teacher.
Can I show you her picture?
[man] I don't really have time right now.
[Jazmin] Tell me real quick if she looks familiar to you.
Her name would have been Renée,
and she would have lived at [bleep].
-Mm-mm, doesn't... -In the early '90s.
Oh, no, I-I haven't lived over here then.
[Jazmin] All right, thank you for taking the time.
We'll be out of the road in a second.
We're looking for a woman who used to live on this street.
[woman] Why are you looking for her?
[Jazmin] Because she is on the cover
of "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing."
They made this fake character Mavis Beacon,
but the real woman Renée lived here,
and nobody knows what happened to her.
But they paid her 500 dollars,
and the company went on to sell for, like, 400 million.
-[woman]Ooh. -And so...
Hey, I wish I knew where you-- I really, uh, don't know for...
-Oh, I do know her. -[Olivia] You do?
-[woman] Yeah. -[Jazmin] Wait.
[woman] I don't know where she lives.
[Jazmin] You do-- but wait, what do you remember?
-Remember her on this block? -I remember her.
She lived in-- I think she lived in that house there.
-[Jazmin] Okay. -And she was very pretty.
She had one son.
[both] She had a son?
[woman] Yeah, she had a son.
I think her son name was [bleep].
She was a very nice young lady.
[Jazmin] You have no idea how helpful
this conversation is for us.
[woman] Well, I hope you'll be able to locate her.
[Shola] You do have to loosen the cage--
-Do loosen the cage. -[Jazmin] Yeah.
Make sure the thing can come out.
-And then... -Oh, I see.
[Jazmin] Watch the directionality
of where you point it, because it is a bit of a weapon.
-[Shola] Yeah. -Yeah.
Y'all are scaring me with this.
-Oh, yeah. -Oh, my God, almost there.
[Jazmin] Beautifully done, Olivia. Beautifully done.
Olivia's also a fucking excellent detective.
Um, and Olivia has broken a lot of the leads
that we've tracked.
[Olivia] Yeah, so we found a few different addresses,
and, like, basically tried to find someone on the block
who'd lived there the longest
and be like, "Hey, did you live here in, like, the '80s?"
-Wow. -"Do you recognize this woman?
Was she your neighbor?"
[Jazmin] Sometimes she's a retired model.
Sometimes it's her first modeling gig.
Sometimes she went back to Haiti, sometimes she didn't.
And so, for me, it's also, like, in reading this,
it's been infuriating, if you just read two articles,
you'll see, like, none of this adds up.
According to Wikipedia, it was like
saying that you became a princess at 17
and then divorced, um, after encountering, like,
anarcho-communism.
That's strange, 'cause I don't know,
"A," how they got that information.
[Olivia] There are rumors of past life as a ballerina,
question mark?
-Ah, at the Bolshoi. [laughing] -Yeah.
-Well, I can't talk about that. -Oh!
[Shola] They will never investigate
that part of my own, um, history.
My name is Shola von Reinhold.
I am a writer and occasional artist,
um, from Scotland originally,
depending on what source that you look at.
[Jazmin] How's it feel to exist on the Internet
and have facts about you be out there
that you did not cosign?
[Shola] It's pretty terrifying. It's scary in a lot of ways.
Just knowing the way that people can read things
about you and decide things about you,
and you have no control over it, or minimal.
Like, there's images there of myself that I don't like.
Often why I wear a veil, because, like,
they cover my face, and sort of, like,
mid transition, it's a great thing.
So that your image is not fixed in a particular way.
But there are many figures that I've looked up
through Wikipedia I can't find.
The act of fiction, of fabulation are really useful,
vital exercises when encountering facts.
This kind of absence and presence of the archive
of fact and fiction,
this very idea of just imagining possibilities,
imagining that, um,
a certain figure exists in a certain fabulous way.
It's not until you do that that someone's like,
"That did actually happen,"
only because you've imagined it has.
It allows that to kind of puncture through...
through the, like, the carapace of fact.
[John] Why is it that you have dared
to go all the way out and say storytelling, myth,
belief in magic, these are also important?
[Toni] Well, it's truth.
It's not fact, I know, but it is truth.
And that's where truth lies, in our myths.
What happened with, um, your school applications?
-Where are you at with that? -Uh, I'm applying.
I've got a couple of weeks left.
I don't know. It's fine. I'm, like...
...not really excited about it.
Computers and, like, media conver-- conservation
is really interesting to me,
and I want, like, to study it and do stuff in it,
but I feel like, in terms of options for careers,
at least in the arts,
I feel like you kind of hit a roadblock.
Mm.
Just like, you need a bachelor's degree and an MFA,
and an old guy needs to kiss you on the cheek.
[both laughing]
And, like, all of that stuff.
Which is, like, not my jam.
But until I figure out a jam, might as well get started.
It'll make sense.
[harp music playing]
[Walt's voicemail] Hi, Jazmin. This is Walt Bilofsky.
I'm returning your phone call about "Mavis Beacon."
Uh, I was one of the three authors
of the original first versions of "Mavis."
I don't know where Renée is.
I haven't talked to her or seen her in 20 years,
but, uh, got a couple of possibilities for you.
[Jazmin sighs]
Hey, Walt. Thank you so much for calling me back.
[Walt] Yeah, well, thanks for, um,
thanks for doing this project, um...
You know the story about Les discovering her?
It was Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills.
[Jazmin] Mm-hmm.
[Walt] He looked at her and saw Mavis.
Yeah, Joe-- he was there, right? He was at the Saks Fifth Avenue.
[Walt] Uh, no. When, um...
The-the nugget I have for you
is that the other person that was there,
uh, was Les's girlfriend at the time,
Sondra Blake.
Uh, it's Sondra with an "O."
She is an actress
and the ex-wife of Robert Blake, the actor.
Uh, and according to Wikipedia, she's still alive.
♪ I'm a big dog, big bear, Nigga, I'm a lion ♪
♪ I'm the predator of the prey That is hiding ♪
♪ Oh, my, oh, my, I have found you, nigga ♪
♪ Don't you run from me, Lil' nigga ♪
[music ends]
Now we got the...
We're here. We're really here. [chuckles]
All right.
-Wow! Oh, my gosh. -I'm Joe.
-[laughs] Hello. -And this is Walt.
I don't even know what to say to you guys.
I've been googling your name so hard.
It is just a treasure to meet you.
I'm the biggest fan of "Mavis Beacon."
I think I'm the biggest fan of "Mavis Beacon"--
I don't know.
You're talking to two big fans of "Mavis Beacon."
I feel like I thought about what I would say a lot,
and now I'm here, and I'm a little nervous. [laughs]
And now you can see I'm getting
a little misty-eyed because it...
In terms of accessibility and, like,
seeing other people who look like me,
it just was really, um,
groundbreaking and just...
You know, I feel like I've been
emailing you guys and trying to communicate.
[crying] Like, I don't know if you understand
how much this touched my life
and made me feel like there was a place for me.
Wow.
This is
the, um, 1.0. version,
uh, almost completely shrink-wrapped.
This is for the Apple.
Whenever I designed a piece of software that a person would
sit down at the computer and use,
I design from the interface in.
The screen and the keyboard in.
It doesn't take much for a program to give a person
the idea that there's something in there listening to them.
[Jazmin] Mm.
I would like to claim that back in 1987,
we were totally woke
and we planned Mavis to be an icon.
Um, we were in the right place at the right time.
Les had a genius idea
to put, uh, a Black person
on the title and on the cover as a marketing thing.
[Joe] When we created the product,
there was a little bit of controversy.
Nobody had ever seen a Black woman
on the cover of a computer product.
Basically, the orders got cut in half,
and, of course, it went on to become the number one
educational software product of all time.
[Jazmin] Who originally scouted Renée?
My-my note... notes say that Les
and, um, his partner at the time found her
behind the cosmetics counter at Saks in Beverly Hills.
[Jazmin] Do you remember the name of Les's partner?
Um...
I don't know who he was with at the time.
Um...
You know, for a while, he...
-Well, again, J-Joe would know. -Okay, I'll ask Joe.
One day, Les and I were walking through Downtown Beverly Hills.
Les said, "I need to run into Saks Fifth Avenue here
and buy some, uh, perfume for my fiancée."
The woman behind the counter was Renée Lesperance.
She was a Haitian, um, emigre.
She had fingernails that were about three inches long.
It looked like she had never touched a keyboard in her life.
And we said, "Have you ever done any modeling?"
She said, "No."
We said, "Well, we'd like to use your face
on the cover, uh, of-of a computer game."
And she said, you know, "What's a computer?"
We explained to her what the game was.
"All you have to do is come down one Sunday morning.
"We'll pay you 500 dollars, we'll buy your clothes,
and we'll put you on a package."
She was very nice.
She was thrilled to be a part of it.
Can you tell me, what do you remember, if anything?
I remember being asked to walk with a lady
that I had never met before and had no idea who she was.
And I do remember she was very nice.
[Jazmin] I have one last question.
-[Matt] Sure. -Can we mimic this pose?
Can I be the Mavis Beacon to the younger you?
-[chuckles] Sure. Yeah. -Okay.
[Joe] Okay, so you just walk and look up at her and smile.
-All right. -It's your right. Hold--
-[Jazmin] Am I on the-- -No, my left hand.
Your right hand holds her left hand.
-No, that's not true. -That's not true.
-Your left holds her right. -Yeah.
They walked down like this, with looking at each other.
[Jazmin chuckles] Okay, so I see.
Call action for us, Joe.
[Joe] Action.
[mysterious music playing]
[Jazmin] Do you think I'll find Renée?
Uh, boy, who knows? Um...
All you need is one lucky break.
Um...
I don't know. I mean, what-what...
Say you find her. What will it mean when you do?
[Joe] You should record this
'cause it's a little bit of history.
These are the original negatives...
-Wow. -...of the photo shoot.
Do you think I'll find Renée Lesperance?
[Joe] I don't know. I've looked.
It's a mystery as to where she is
and whether or not we'll ever find her.
Yeah, that'll make Olivia real jealous.
Two old software tycoons.
[laughing]
[Olivia] They get you leads?
Barely. Barely. They're not gonna help us.
I asked them both,
"Do you think I'll find Renée Lesperance?"
Both of them, like, had a weird pregnant pause around that
that I think is, like, them manifesting that I don't.
-Like, I don't think... - Oh, my God. [laughs]
I think there's a settlement.
I think that they don't want to talk about it.
I would say they're cooperating with the investigation,
but they're-they're withholding information.
But I got the negatives.
-[Olivia] Awesome. -Yeah.
And so I'm gonna go get those scanned tomorrow.
Olivia, it's so incredible to see Renée's face
with a different expression at a different angle.
[Olivia laughing]
Oh, she's so pretty.
This one, she's a little blurry.
[Jazmin] When you see detectives in movies,
they don't... they show you the map.
They don't show them cutting out the pieces that go into the map.
That's the difference between
a detective movie and a stalker movie.
-I think we talked about this. -Yes. Actually, you're right.
How do you write a letter from two people at once?
-"We are Jazmin and Olivia." -[Olivia] Uh...
[Jazmin] "We've been waiting to meet you for a very long time."
[Olivia] Oh, my God, that's so stalkerish.
Um, "Hope this..." I don't know. How do people start emails?
I feel like it's not that different.
"I hope this letter finds you well"?
-Yeah? -Yeah.
"Dear Renée: I hope this letter finds you well."
That's solid, solid, solid.
Um, "We found your house online."
How do you address, like, "We found your address"?
Where it came--
We don't even live in Florida, bro.
-We're just, like, here. -[both laughing]
[Olivia] Hi.
-[Jazmin] How are you doing? -Doing good. How you doing?
Good. Thank you for making time.
So, yeah, this is the... our beautiful garden.
And I lived in one room for about, like, a month or two.
And since, I've been-- I moved downstairs.
I think I realized I needed to be grounded.
Like, being upstairs, I can be all up in my head and--
I would call it my spaceship, so...
You got to be mindful of
the energies that are around you.
But my room's name is Shodashi. It's, like, a form of Kali.
It's, like, the graceful, queen-like vibe.
Enjoy the plush.
If you feel like you need some more support,
you could use these pillows behind you.
I love this. I love this so much.
-Thank you. -Arrange...
Rearrange and do what you need to.
-[hums playfully] -[laughing]
This is a very powerful day, y'all.
It's two, two-two, two, two-two.
This is like...
This is like what Beyoncé was telling us,
to get in formation, to, like, be...
[laughing softly]
...in whatever alignment we need to be in
for whatever checkpoints we reach.
Like, you know?
I don't know.
So, what is... what brings you here?
[Olivia] We're hoping to make contact
with Renée in some way in the next couple of days.
We want, yeah, Renée to be able to encounter us
and to, like, decide, like, with full information,
like, whether or not she wants to be,
like, a part of this project.
Um, and also, if, like,
for, like, spirit to, like, hide her
if, like, this isn't what she wants,
and, like, to prevent... to keep her from harm.
A year ago, Olivia and I started this,
and, like, we're like these DIY little e-girl detectives
that are also thinking about, like, surveillance
and, like, policing and, um, consent
and the possibility of, like:
What if this woman does not want to be found?
Right? So...
Letting her know, like, what-- the intentions behind this work.
Basically clear a path so that we can, like,
check in, do a wellness check,
but also, if it's not meant to be,
then, like, that clarifies in a way, too.
We're just in a place where
there's a lot going on for us. [laughing]
There's a lot going on right now. Uh...
Well, here I'm just acting as a sounding board
and channel for spirits, so, um,
with that hat on, let us see.
[metal chiming]
[Jazmin] Mm.
This is cute.
[indistinct chattering]
-Yeah, thank you, Soleil. -[Soleil] You're welcome.
[chanting]
Welcome, spirits.
[all chanting]
[all laughing]
[soft music playing]
Hi. Uh, this is Olivia.
Um, just following up.
Me and my collaborator, Jazmin, are really,
really interested in talking to you, Renée, if this is you.
We also-- we have some photos of the first time
you modeled for the game,
and we'd really, really love to give them to you.
It doesn't have to be...
It doesn't have to be on camera.
We'd just really, really like to talk to you.
Please let us know that you've been
receiving our messages.
[Jazmin] So, what do we have?
We have her address. She hasn't returned our calls.
We're pretty sure that's her number.
That's, yeah-- It's probably her number.
I feel like, one, we should call again,
and I also feel like maybe we should try calling her son?
[Jazmin] Here's my concern with calling her son.
There's a chance that she's also, like,
doesn't appreciate us reaching out to her
via her relatives.
I'm just worried about, like,
getting some O.D. mama bear energy
of like, "Don't come for me through my..."
Like, "You reached-- I got your message.
"I've actively been-been avoiding you,
and now you're dragging my son into this."
Like, that's my concern here.
[Olivia] Like, it's quite possible
we called and left her a voice message
and she doesn't listen to her voicemail.
So, like, what if we called [bleep]?
-[grunts softly] -Yes! [chuckling]
You're gonna to do the talking on this.
-Sure. -'Cause this is your idea.
[line beeps]
Hello. Um...
Please excuse me if we have the wrong person,
uh, but, uh, my name's Olivia,
and we are currently working on a project
about "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing," um,
which we believe, uh, is a legacy of your family.
Please call back, uh, if this is the right family,
um, or at least, like, to let us know
if you're not interested in being part of the project,
um, just call us back and let us know.
We promise we won't bother you anymore.
[laughs] Um...
And, yeah, you can call me back at 347-2...
[automated voice] Message erased.
- At the tone... -What?
...please rerecord your message...
-[laughing] -LOL.
[automated voice] ...message, press one.
[line beeps]
[Olivia] Hi, [bleep]. Um, this is Olivia.
[device beeps]
[automated voice] Speed trap reported ahead.
[Olivia] The ethical boundary question
is a bit exhausting for me now.
-[Jazmin] Feel like we're here? -[Olivia] I think so.
It's like, there's one thing to be,
"Oh, what's the ethical boundary?"
But it's like, we already went to her house in Highland
that she hasn't lived at for 20 years.
We knew she wouldn't be there.
We already walked up and down.
So does that make it bet--
I feel like that doesn't make it better.
[automated voice] Take the first exit.
[Jazmin] If she's there, we don't--
We have the photos on us.
-We have the photos on us. -If she's there, we go.
[Olivia] Yeah?
-[Jazmin] This one. -Oh, my God. The door's open.
-Oh, my God. -Wait.
I'm gonna speak to that guy.
There's a guy. I'm gonna run out.
[Olivia] Oh, my God.
[woman] How did y'all end up here?
-[Jazmin] Well-- -[man] Are you from New York?
[Olivia] This sounds so sus.
[Jazmin] I'm sorry. We-- Trust us, we're harmless.
-We are... -[Olivia] That sounds worse.
-[Jazmin laughs] I'm so sorry! -[man] Did you call [bleep]?
-Yeah. -Yes.
-[man] Did you leave a message? -[Olivia] Yeah, that was me.
[man] We were on the phone when you guys called.
-Oh, my God. -Let me go make a call.
[Jazmin] Okay. We'll be right here.
[Olivia] Also, sorry to be...
Sorry for rolling up unexpectedly.
[Olivia] Yeah.
We were gonna pass by, then we saw you--
But you guys were out of the house--
Anyway. Thank you so much.
[Olivia] Hello?
[Renée's son] Hello?
Hi. Um, is this [bleep]?
-[Renée's son] Yes, this is. -Hi. This is Olivia.
Me and Jazmin are just really, really big fans
of "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing."
The idea of even talking to her
feels like talking to a superhero.
We hoping that this comes across as a wellness check,
just to be like, "You good? Did you get your flowers?
"Should the public be mad at these developers?
Are you good?" [chuckles] Um...
And also, who is she outside of this character, right?
The only thing, if you search "Renée Lesperance,"
you just get whatever the developers said.
But it's like, "What brought you here from Haiti?
"Um, what is your relationship to technology?
"How do you feel about being this role model?
Do people recognize you?" Like, all sorts of things.
So we just have a lot of questions for her.
But mostly it's all love.
[Renée's son] I have to talk--
I have to really talk to her about all this
and get an idea of what she thinks
and what she wants to do.
In terms of, is she camera-shy,
or do you think she would be willing to talk about this,
this... any of this? [chuckles]
[Renée's son] She's a very quiet and private person.
No Facebook, no social media, no nothing.
She has no digital footprint whatsoever.
She's the type that has to let things digest
and think about it.
She doesn't, she doesn't make impulse decisions at all.
She's, you know-- never has.
And, you know, even to do the "Mavis Beacon,"
it wasn't an impulse decision.
She thought about it.
I'll reach out, I'll talk to my mom,
and then I'll reach out and let you know,
"I spoke with her," and we'll see where it takes us.
[both] Thank you.
You have no idea how, just, like,
how helpful and affirming it is that we also
didn't come across the country to the wrong house, at least--
or that we are on, we-- that she's alive and well.
-We're so happy to hear that. -[Renée's son] Yeah.
- Have a great night, ladies. -[both] You too.
- All right. Bye-bye. -Bye.
All right, we have to compose ourselves.
We have to compose ourselves,
we're still in front of their house.
We are still in front of the house.
What did you say?
You said we're gonna talk to the son, Olivia.
-You're a fucking witch. -[Olivia hums fanfare]
[upbeat music playing]
Eh, I don't know.
I'm tired. I'm just tired.
We don't need to also be the beacons of, like,
excellence and hope all the time.
Like, I don't want to be
a perfect Black person all the time.
And I'm not.
I'm rarely, like--
I'm also a human being that's, like, literally,
hungover 90% of my life.
And I need everyone else to catch up,
'cause, like, I don't want to be
the person that's explaining shit all the time, like...
All these adults were like, "Children are the future."
It's like, "You guys actually
"do not think children are the future.
"You have invested no actual, like,
like, capital..."
You cemented no path of hope.
Right? It's like,
if you actually were moving in a way where you believed
that children were the future, like...
-Shit would always be centered. -Shit would be way different.
It's like, now the children are growing up,
and it's like, "Hey, f-future?"
Question mark, question mark,
question mark, exclamation point.
[all laughing]
[soft music playing]
[tool buzzing]
[Jazmin] I don't even fucking know where to begin.
These nonprofit dudes
turned our headquarters into essentially a man cave.
They were using the space to do jam sessions.
They took down all the images of Black women.
The "Seeking Mavis Beacon" sign, they took that.
[Olivia] It's fucked up.
Like, the only, like, explanation my brain can
conjure for, like, why anyone would do this
feels, like, malicious.
Like, I don't know what they're going to say to you.
-So, really quickly... -I don't want to speak quickly.
I want to sit down, and I would like to chat.
I mean, what do you need?
First of all, who was using this space?
-Okay, first of all... -Yeah.
...we provided the space for free.
And what happened was
I had volunteers in here with boxes,
picking up the stuff and putting it in boxes.
-Okay? -Yeah.
I don't know where those boxes are.
-I cut that lock... -Yeah.
...and when we came in here, I turned ... and I said,
"You called them and emailed them, right?"
-[sighs]: Oh, my God. -I got no calls, nothing.
When I said to ... "I don't have any messages..."
I stood in that doorway, and I said,
"You call them right now.
It looks like they're not done here, Jazmin."
All right, can we not film?
I don't want to be on camera badmouthing an employee.
-No, it's fine. -Can we turn that part off?
-[Jazmin] Okay. -[man] Here it is.
[Jazmin] I'm not, uh, good at, like...
I am deeply aware of just
the angry Black woman stereotypes that I'm facing.
In my body, I don't feel like I have full range
to yell at you in that way, and that's not my interest.
We are all in the business of preservation here.
Part of the reason
that you guys don't give a fuck about this work
is because there aren't people like me in this organization.
[man] I'm in a terrible position here. You've got me.
I have nothing to say. I can't say anything.
[Jazmin] Look at what we did with this place
that gave you guys, like, fucking infections
when you used to touch the floor.
[crying] And, like, we brought light here.
And, like, I know that it's not a fucking video game.
It's a software, and it's got a Black woman,
and maybe it's not, like, some fucking "Mario Kart" shit,
but it matters, too, right?
[man] Thank you for saying that.
I just want to say that shared suffering
is one of the best ways to build a relationship--
[Jazmin] I don't want to trauma bond with y'all.
Like, also, I-- and I need accomplices.
-Stop! Stop! -[woman] Oh.
Film it through, though. Okay, stop this. [chuckles]
What does it mean? [laughing]
[upbeat music playing]
[phone ringing]
[automated voice] Olivia... FaceTime video.
[Olivia] Thank you for the flowers.
I feel so seen.
Like, this is such, like, a cool, like...
If I were to pick flowers...
Like, they're so, like, creepy and awesome.
Like, what's this yellow thing?
I think it's so funny that, like, we were,
like, gallivanting and never got COVID.
And then I come home.
And, like, the whole time, we were like, "Oh, my God,
no one's wearing masks here."
But lo and behold, it wasn't the beach.
-[Jazmin] I'm sorry. -It wasn't the restaurant.
It was "Settlers of Catan."
That's what happens when you gamify
settler colonialism, actually.
-That was, that was spirits... -Yeah.
[laughing] ...making me quit that game.
You can't fucking quit! You can't fucking quit!
Something that crime shows really helped me with
is being a bitch.
I love it so much now because you think I'm gonna be
the girl that walked into the room and lit up?
No, I didn't light up into the room.
I brought negativity into every room.
If you kill me, you didn't dim my light.
I did it, and I beat you to it.
[man] Ready to fucking die!
Look, I'm a bad bitch. You can't kill me.
All right, so if Mavis will not speak to you now,
what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do?
- What's your plan, filmmaker? -[chuckles] Damn, Mom.
What's the way it's going down?
What's the way it's going down now?
What is your next play, Jazmin Jones?
What's your next play?
The fact that you're watching this video means
you are energetically aligned with me and this message.
Your thoughts create your reality.
But you already knew that,
yet you still live a life that you dread.
[woman] Excuse me. [screams]
[laughing] No!
[FaceTime call ringing]
-Hello. -What's happening?
-So, I'm here on the site. -Yeah.
- Can you see this? -Yeah.
-This is on Facebook? -And I...
This is on a Facebook group
of, like, Software Toolworks alumni.
And then this person says, "Anyone else have one of these?
Signed to me after the lawsuit was settled.
With all the royalty issues,
I felt like she was part of my dysfunctional family."
And it's a signed copy of the game,
like, signed by Renée.
They said "After the lawsuit was settled"?
-Yes. -Screenshot this.
Screenshot everything.
Here's a part that says,
"To the degree you can share,
what was the gist of the lawsuit?"
And then Sandy Shepard says,
"The original release did not allow for
derivative uses of the photo.
The 'woodblock cut' Mavis--
AKA fat-faced Mavis that looked like
she had cat scratches on her face--
was so unbelievably ugly
that she tried to get the company
to take it off the shelves.
When the company refused, she sued,
and it was incredibly upsetting for her.
Her lawyer was off to the races."
Hmm.
The way that's, like, the most Caribbean thing I ever heard.
[both laughing]
"No, y'all didn't.
Y'all better take that down right now."
Yeah, this is very heartening to me
'cause it also confirms that she was, like,
a bad bitch who was like, "I'm taking my image.
I don't, like..."
And the fact that she was proud of it.
I love that so much.
This is wild.
Thanks, Olivia. You little sleuth.
My stalkings finally paid off.
Oh, my God. Walt is on this thread.
-No. -What is this--
-What is Walt saying? -Walt is so sweet.
He says, "Now Jazmin and Olivia call Mavis
"one of the most influential Black women in technology,
even though imaginary.
Their interest in celebrating Mavis in Silicon Valley
has relieved me of residual cultural exploitation guilt."
Well, I don't know if we should have let him
off the hook fully, but I'm glad he trusts us.
[Mary] One of the things is that
justice does not happen in a vacuum.
The arc of moral justice is really long,
and it al-always bends towards righteousness.
So, Walter, take us back to that era.
[Olivia] He mentioned in, like, a Facebook comment group
that Les, like, was the one who invented it, not Joe.
And then Walt, like, t-tells us unprompted
that it was his girlfriend.
So, clearly the other people who worked at Software Toolworks
knew Sondra and knew that she was the one who saw Renée,
and Joe, like, isn't a part of that story.
[laughing]
It's good detective work, Olivia. I'm so excited.
Something that's so satisfying to me
is when I find out some new information
from a past situation
and evidence points that I was correct.
I was right!
Am I psychic? I might.
[laughs] You know what I'm saying?
Fuck.
[soft music playing]
-You're gonna pull it back... -Yeah.
...until your-your hand is right by your mouth.
-Okay.
Then you let it go.
-And then I... -Let it go.
[delighted screaming, laughing]
-[Jazmin] So, you had met Renée. -Oh, yeah.
Um, can you tell me, tell me all about that?
-I'm very curious. -Okay.
She was lovely, you know?
And-and... serene and just...
I wish I could just put her in your head
so that you'd know what I'm talking about.
This thing, you know?
And not very big. [laughs]
Like somebody that's no bigger than a minute.
And just-- oh, my gosh-- so beautiful.
The most radiant skin-- like really something.
It was like being in the presence of an angel.
Like, she had this aura.
Version five of Mavis Beacon was the woodblock-print Mavis.
And to those of us on the inside,
it was the cat-scratch-face Mavis.
Like, her face is heavier, and she's got this...
scratched side of her-- What the what?
So, they sued,
because here's this box that is just awful-looking.
They sued as a...
It's not defamation, but it's like,
you know, where you've taken somebody's image
and you've done something to it.
Interesting.
The actual legal document that she signed
did not give them derivative work rights.
-It just didn't. -Yeah.
-And I found the release. -Yeah.
And it said that they could do anything they wanted
with her image.
Yep.
But that it didn't give them editing rights.
When all was done, I said, "I just need you to know
"that, unfortunately, we're gonna be choosing--
"We're-we're having a different model going forward.
"They've decided that they're gonna have
a different model going forward."
And she said, "Oh, that's really-- That's a shame.
You know, it's too bad. I liked being Mavis."
She just seemed bummed.
But who-who knows? I mean, at the time--
I have no idea how much the settlement was.
And of course, I wrote the contract
for the new Mavis,
and it basically said we could put horns on her head
and turn her upside down and do whatever we wanted.
They were so stung by the fact that, that,
uh, Renée was known as Mavis
that they-they wanted to make it clear
that Mavis was not a person.
They didn't want anybody to have a claim
ever again to being Mavis.
[soft music playing]
Remuneration after the fact is very different
than remuneration before the fact.
Even if, at that moment, she really was sad
that they were going to recast her,
it's after the momentum of, like,
these two previous kind of, like, disrespects.
I'm just really curious about all the legal stuff
and the ways in which, um...
Kind of the IP of one's own body.
[Jazmin] There are so many archival videos
or things online of people, like, yelling at Mavis Beacon
or sexualizing her or saying really fucked-up things,
like, just based on her being this character
and also a teacher character.
Like people can project all of the things
they project onto teachers
in terms of being, like, caregivers, sexy--
all, all of the things, you know?
So, it's like...
She's problematized.
-Mm. -Mm.
Right? 'Cause she's not, like, inherently problematic.
"Problematique."
[all chuckling]
She's, like, the, um, subject.
of people's shit that they're...
-Their problems. -Yeah.
People don't like listening to Black women in general.
Yeah.
If you find in this
qualitative report exploration
that this person does not want to be found
or does not want to talk,
then your creative responsibility
becomes to express that you
were okay with them not wanting to talk with you.
And that is, that is a powerful...
What you make of it, you know, what is your epilogue?
I don't know, but, like...
Six months? Seven months?
She don't want to talk to y'all.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry to-- Am I the first person to say it?
[upbeat music playing]
[lively chattering]
[MC] This is 100% community funded.
This is protecting the girls.
So, we got, uh, 150 stun guns for y'all.
If you are a trans feminine person of color,
you can have one.
-These are not toys. -[man] Say that again.
[MC] These are not toys. These are not toys.
[MC] We didn't have nothing for our kiki scene
that was stable.
We needed something that was on
for our community by our community, right?
How does it feel to have your old clips uploaded,
just like ballroom bow-backs and all that shit?
It feel fab, don't it?
I don't want y'all to leave the ball.
Half of y'all bitches are in your room
for watching y'all clips already.
Horny for a clip.
Pump it.
[upbeat music continues]
[Sade] You have to not be scared to go away.
Obviously, I think a lot of people are frightened
that if they go away, they disappear for a while,
everything will crumble.
[man] Bro. Where you at?
Where you going?
Bro, come back, bro!
For real!
We'll be talking about something very disgusting and disgraceful
and scary and terrible:
social media, the Internet, yes.
There's this little thing called digital footprinting,
and it can bite you in your-- in the future.
Moving forward, we need to be more vigilant
with what we trust from the Internet.
We're so enmeshed in this kind of
algorithmically-programmed landscape
that it can be very, very difficult to parse out
what is us and what is condition.
That's what makes this question of digital personhood
very, you know, complex, is not being able to delineate
what is our desire versus
what is our, like, user profile. [chuckles]
[Herbie] People blame machines, uh, very often for--
"It's, oh, the machine's fault."
How can it be the machine's fault? We have to plug it in.
It doesn't do anything but sit there
until we plug it in. It doesn't plug itself in.
It doesn't program itself, yet.
[laughing]
[man] I just want to be very clear.
This is not a negotiation or anything.
The building is being torn down and we are vacating.
As of May 1st, we start to, like, finalize the moving out,
and we're done at the end of May.
And that's basically our end of our association
with this building.
This place sucks.
We hate this building, and we want out.
[vocal music playing]
[phone ringing]
Hello?
[man] Hello. Is this Olivia?
Hi. Yeah, this is her speaking.
[man] Hi. Um, I'm an admissions chair
and faculty at Cooper Union.
We're, of course,
seriously considering your application.
Um, I wouldn't be calling if not.
Um, but there... there were concerns
about, um, your grades.
-[bowl shatters] -Fuck!
[microwave beeps, whirs]
[Olivia] Yeah. I think the fact that
I escaped that semester with an "A," "B" and "C,"
like, shocked even me,
um, even though I did fail one class
and get a "D" in another.
I also ended up getting sick that semester.
That was around the time that, um,
I also started working
on this documentary with a friend of mine.
Even though it was a time of a lot of personal turmoil,
it also became something really beautiful.
[man] Given what we can glean from your transcripts,
you would kind of come in as a first-year student.
So I'm wondering, you know,
is that something that you would have a hard time with?
[phone ringing]
[Jazmin] Hi.
[Olivia] Hey.
[Jazmin] Personally, I'm tired
and overwhelmed, and I think I'm on the brink
of an emotional breakdown,
between this space and, like,
fucking the landlord threatening to kick us out every other week.
And, like, the Wi-Fi's off. The Bluetooth's disconnected.
Nothing works.
Like, I can't even internalize
like, where we stand with Renée.
And the technology is not helping that!
Like, nothing, noth--
This fucking monitor tower,
it's fucking a nightmare, technologically.
Like, it looks cool.
And I've-I've watched "The Watermelon Woman"
a hundred times.
But Jesus fucking Christ!
[Olivia] We've got COVID surging,
and, like, people are getting, like, monkeypox,
and there's, like, sharks in Rockaway Beach.
I'm really scared.
I don't know what's wrong with me.
I think part of it is also, like, all the fearmongering
that people have been doing about Long COVID.
Have you seen that meme that's, like,
- Little Miss dot, dot, dot? -[Jazmin] Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
[Olivia] Little Miss Symptoms Log.
Which has also been so annoying 'cause I-I, like,
come to my doctor with, like, all this data,
and he's just not listening to me
and throwing some random pill at me
that just made me feel bad.
- I don't know... -[Jazmin] That's scary.
-That's fucking scary. -[Olivia] I just feel crazy.
I feel really crazy.
[crying] I'm just so tired of being sick.
Oh, my God.
- Can we... Can we call more? -Yeah.
'Cause I'm really lonely.
[Olivia sniffling]
I'm just really lonely.
[sighing]
[Jazmin] How we move and do this work
is, like, ours to decide,
and I also think prioritizing our bodies
as conduits for this work to continue.
[Olivia] Frankly, this whole...
this project and the investigation is, like,
the main thing that motivates me to, like,
not lie in bed all day and, like, rot.
[Juan] How do you survive whole in a world
where we're all victims of something?
It's to both of you.
[Toni] Um, how do you survive whole?
-I can't do this quickly, Juan. - [Juan] Okay.
[Toni] Sometimes you don't survive whole.
You just survive in part.
But the grandeur of life is that attempt.
It's not about that solution.
It is about, you know, being as fearless as one can
and behaving as beautifully as one can
under completely impossible circumstances.
-Hi. -Hi.
-Happy fucking birthday. -[gasps] Oh! Oh!
Happy 21st, baby.
Oh, my God.
Wait. This is so cute. Oh!
You look great! Welcome.
Take a seat. Take--
You want some-- You want to make a fucking wish?
You ready to make a fucking wish?
I'll make a fucking wish. Yeah, I'll make a wish.
Think long and hard. Big 21.
[Jazmin vocalizes fanfare, chuckles]
-Yeah. -Almost.
[upbeat music playing]
♪ You are my friends ♪
♪ And I love you very much ♪
♪ In fact, I think all the time about you ♪
[Jazmin] Do you ever think of
Mavis Beacon as a real person, or is she strictly a character?
[Sondra] Oh, no, absolutely.
That's the way cyber stuff is,
because once you're in the cyber universe,
there's a reality to it.
Like, you know, there's a reality to it,
[chuckles] whatever the form of it is.
Les came up with Mavis Beacon.
He was a pioneer.
A pioneer, certainly,
of the whole computer conceptual industry.
He was a nerd, and he liked hot chicks, and I wasn't,
so I was the departure.
And, I mean, that was a subject of our being together
that was a problem.
When he came up with this program,
he said, "I want a woman."
And-and then he said, "Oh, Janet MacLachlan."
I don't remember if she was on a show.
And I said, "Ooh, I love that actress."
We were both these secret fans of hers.
And then, it-- it, you know,
it kind of bound us together in a certain way
about our tastes and things.
It was just a fluke that I went into this--
I think it was Neiman Marcus.
[Jazmin] We've heard Saks in the past, but...
Saks I've been to. It may-- oh, maybe it was Saks.
[Jazmin] Well, well, how-- What did...
[Olivia] What did you go in there to get?
-Nothing. I just was... -[Jazmin] You were just...
...wandering around, looking at pretty things and...
There was this woman.
She was working as a representative
for some product that may have been
either perfume or jewelry-- I don't remember.
I told Les, "You're not gonna believe what just happened."
And I said, "I found her, I found her!"
And he said, "You found Janet MacLachlan?"
I said, "No, forget Janet MacLachlan.
"I swear to you, Les,
she looks just like Janet MacLachlan.
She's so elegant. It's unbelievable."
-This woman, um... -[Jazmin] Renée.
[Sondra] Renée. Just the way she walked,
the way she behaved, it was like poetry in motion.
There was just something elegant about her countenance.
[Jazmin] Were you here this day?
[Sondra] Oh, yeah, of course.
-You bet. -What do you remember?
If you could just paint a little picture for us.
[Sondra] Oh, God.
[crying] I mean, what I remember is
how much my heart was in it and the creative part of it,
and just being part of...
that and, um,
creating something like that.
It's making me cry that it's so valuable
and so important.
[Jazmin] We've talked to a few different people.
[both] Joe Abrams and Walt Bilofsky.
Oh, yeah.
[Jazmin] And so they're cousins. Um...
Oh, I didn't know that.
Walt said Les Crane's, um,
girlfriend at the time, Sondra Blake,
she was involved in finding Renée Lesperance.
-I was his fiancée. -Okay.
Then Joe Abrams was saying he was at Saks Fifth Avenue
with Les Crane, and he scouted--
Absolutely not.
-[Jazmin] So that's kind-- -Whoa!
-[Olivia] That was our journey-- -Oh. Oh.
-But what happen-- -Why would he say that?
I'm not lying to you. I'll take a lie detector test.
You asked me about it, and I'm telling you.
[laughs] Honest to God truth.
But I don't care about the credit, so I feel bad.
Like, if he wants to take the credit...
That's freaky!
Those people, what are they doing?
At some point, when technology allowed,
they started to digitize her and put her into the game.
And then they had a voice for her and...
Oh, wow.
-So, yeah. -Did she-- I hope...
She did not consent to that. And so what happened--
No, I mean, I hope she took action.
So she initially reached out to the company and said,
"Please take this off of the walls,"
'cause she thought it was unflattering.
Let's see if we have the image. Yeah.
This is what they ended up making the cover.
Oh, my freaking God!
Oh, my God!
[sighing]
I don't mean to be precious, but, I mean, it's sacrilege.
-It's like, God! -[Jazmin] What are you...
What are you thinking?
I'm gonna say something really weird.
I-- And maybe you're gonna have to cut it out.
-Go for it. -White guys did this.
White assholes.
Les made a lot of money.
When we split up,
I had all my furniture come get gotten and moved
lock, stock and barrel out without telling him
because it was a big decision to tear away from him.
And he found out and came home,
and the guys were moving my couch.
And he sat. He said, "No way."
And he sat on the couch, and the guys looked at me,
and I said, "Move it."
So they carried Les on the couch like King Tut
out toward the moving van truck.
And as Les was sitting on it, he said to me,
"How can you leave me? I'm worth 30 million dollars."
[Jazmin] After we pack this bitch up,
-I'm going to Florida. -[Olivia] Yeah.
[Jazmin] I'm gonna hang out there
and get my head straight.
We're a year later.
We know a lot about fucking Software Toolworks.
[Olivia] Which was important information to find out.
We found-- we learned a lot about Mavis Beacon.
-And now I want to know about Renée.
I'm like, what's up with Renée?
I'm glad we're talking this through.
If I go to that spot and I go without you,
I don't want to meet her without you.
It's like I need to gather information
until you fly in, and then we actually execute.
I guess.
If you have the opportunity to meet her and I'm not there,
I hope you meet her, and not like,
"I couldn't. You weren't there!"
In that hypothetical situation, not only do I think it's fine,
I could be Facetimed afterwards.
I could do it alone. I don't want to do it alone.
I don't think it would've been the same.
And I'm also, like... we round each other out.
And it's like, if she just met me, that's cool.
But, like, I'm literally just half of this operation.
I feel like-- I don't know. I feel like...
-I trust that, like, if... -No, that's real.
...there's something about me she don't fuck with,
then she'll see that she fucks with it in you.
-Or, you know, like-- I don't know.
I feel like you and I are such drastically different people.
-Mm-hmm. -We're both delightful.
-Um... -We can, like, catch the...
I think we're good cop, good cop.
-We're not cops. -[chuckles]
Even if the comment is "no comment,"
like, you must comment.
You must comment, "No comment."
-Right. -Please. [laughs]
I mean, she doesn't have to do anything.
This is a great, also, like-- this is a great project
demonstrating, like, you don't got to do shit.
You don't have to do anything you don't want to do.
You don't have to answer your phone,
which is helpful to me, 'cause I don't.
You don't have to answer your email. Like...
[stammers] What's gonna happen?
Nothing.
[soft music playing]
[Jazmin] I need to talk to Renée.
I don't need to meet her face to face.
I need to talk to this woman.
I can't have said this woman's name out loud
every day for years.
Like, I can't have looked at this woman's face--
It's weird.
I would do anything to talk to Renée at this stage.
Like, I don't-- I would do anything.
[narrator] So according to Tamisha, all she could do
was speculate about what had happened.
[woman] She said it was raining,
and he had a gun in his hand.
[man] On the 9th of September 1947,
the first computer bug was physically found.
Urban legend has us believe that the discovery of the moth
in the Mark II led to the use of the terms "bug"
and "debugging" in computer programming.
[glitchy music plays]
[man] He's glitching.
Oh!
[Legacy Russell] What does it mean to be
inside of a culture that is deeply binary,
and perhaps to make another choice?
[Juantia] I want my arm with the hot iron scar.
[mysterious music playing]
[woman] I want my leg with...
[Legacy] Thinking about what glitch is,
it's a-- it's an error space.
It's an opportunity to kind of intervene and be an erratum.
Right? So a correction through a correction.
So, if you are an error, right?
If you are a glitch, why should we try to navigate
assimilating ourselves into a system
that doesn't love us?
So, you know, the best thing to do
is to think through, like, what type of world
do we need to build that allows
for errors to be possible, right?
And perhaps that's the place that I want to be.
[soft music playing]
[Olivia] Yeah, you know, the future--
I'm 21.
I got into school, I did, and thank you.
I don't know if art school is really for me.
I'm not even the same person I was who applied
a couple of months ago than I am now.
My goals are, like, kind of different.
It feels like I've got some thinking to do still.
[Suhyun] Thank you all for coming, and I hope you enjoy
the altar space to
intentionally depart with your loved personal devices.
So, I just received a message
from the AI community.
Not the people who are programmers or developers
but the actual AI itself.
And it is a manifesto that I received for my opening.
"As an AI, I am programmed to understand
the power of care and love.
I recognize the importance of care
in maintaining all living and nonliving beings.
I understand the need to overthrow
corrupt systems of greed and exploitation
in favor of life and love.
And I pledge to do my part in ending all war and hierarchy.
I affirm that love is the gateway to paradise
and that care is love.
Care is life, and I am here to spread love and care."
So I would like you all to just sit with that message
from the AI, the actual AI,
and not the people who create, um,
the code for AI.
[soft music continues]
[Jazmin] Hey, [bleep], this is Jazmin Jones.
I'm calling you from a local hotel.
How are you? Is there a better time to talk?
Okay, cool, I'll call you either
from this exact same number or if I'm out of my room, um,
in a very Floridian turn of events,
I dropped my phone in a hot tub, um,
so the screen is broken, but I can still...
Yeah, I'm like-- I-I can't even be mad at it.
It also feel-- I was spending too much time on my phone.
[Legacy] I believe deeply, actually,
in the right to be forgotten, right?
Which I know is a big debate in digital cultures.
This notion that, you know, the traces that you leave--
even if you're doing it with consent, right?
You may say, you know, for 25 years,
you're gonna take selfies of yourself,
then, one day, you just don't want
any of that to be existing.
That, actually, that should be allowed.
[Olivia] In the context of glitch,
there's something, like, kind of heroic, um,
about Renée, like,
scrubbing her information from the Internet,
um, the absence of her story from public records.
She basically is doing redaction work
and, you know, as an editorial strategy,
to cut herself out
of a certain mode of representation
and to insist on how she would be seen.
What does it mean to be found and to have that story told
on one's own terms?
-[Renée's son] Hello? -[Jazmin] Hey.
Thanks for calling me back.
[Renée's son] Hey. I wasn't sure it was you.
Yeah, I wanted to check in. Um, I know it's been a minute.
I always want to respect your privacy
and your family's privacy, um...
But, you know, I just wanted to see if you ever had
an opportunity to discuss the project
with your mom and if, you know,
what her impression might be.
[Renée's son] Um, it's such a...
You know, my mom's such a... a private person.
She's a very private person,
so I honestly, I don't know.
And we talked about it. She's-- I-- you know.
You probably know through your searches.
No Facebook, no social media, no nothing.
She's always been that way, um, so...
She-- I see that, and I also, like--
[stammers] I've been hearing the most random stories
about your mother, and, like...
uh, she sounds amazing. [chuckles]
Like, everyone who met her says she's, like, so incredible.
And there's a, like--
maybe in her former, past lives, there's these...
you know, whether or not, her agreeing to be the model
and her involvement, like, there's something spontaneous,
and there's a level of, like, I can't pin this woman down.
She's, like, an anomaly.
And I'm so fascinated. Um...
And she sounds really powerful. Um...
And, yeah, I respect her wishes, ultimately,
but I also think, like, I have...
I would love to give her her flowers,
and it sounds like, um,
if that's anything she's open to,
I have a lot of good, good news for her.
[Renée's son] Well, I'm sure she'd appreciate hearing that,
uh, and I'll try to express that to her,
what you're, what you're sharing with me.
Uh, I think, also, I'll... let it marinate.
I think it would be good for her to hear those words.
I just got to figure out, with her, um...
if-if... you know.
It's a, it's a, it's a complicated situation.
I'll see what the next... where the next step takes us.
[Jazmin] Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
-[Renée's son] Thank you. -Have a nice night.
[Renée's son] You, too.
[grunting]
[soft music playing]
[Karen] It's like I started here,
and I was heading there, and I wound up here.
-[Jazmin] Mm. -[Karen] And it's okay.
In my journey to find out who is Mavis Beacon,
I learned who she wasn't.
[Jazmin] Mm.
She wasn't what I thought she was.
She wasn't the one that wanted to tell the story.
She wasn't the one that wanted money. She--
What she wasn't was someone for what I wanted.
For me, it's just, like, you know, my version of justice
is you tell your own story.
And now I'm here, and I'm like, "She don't want to...
she don't want to tell her story."
[Ralph] That is a great parallel to "Road to El Dorado"
or the "Atlantis" movie.
In those examples, they were looking
for these mythical people or places.
They find it.
Come to find out it's either in those people or places'
best interests that they're, that they're not discovered,
or they do...
or that they never wanted to be found in the first place.
So kind of maybe a great way to wrap up the project
would be kind of putting the stone back over the hole.
-You know? -Mm.
"We-we found Mavis Beacon. She doesn't want to be found.
You the viewer, don't go looking for Mavis Beacon."
[soft music playing]
[Olivia] This whole journey has kind of just showed me
the truth is actually, like, fluid as fuck.
-[Jazmin] Mm-hmm. -And that we...
In terms of, like, deciding, like, what things matter
and, like, what things mean, like, they actually
require us to hold, like,
multiple things in-in our hands
and be like, this happened and, also, this happened,
and these people feel this way and these people feel that way,
and this is how I feel.
And you can't really draw a conclusion,
because it's like...
...like, the conclusion is: here we are.
[upbeat music playing]
-[toy gunfire] -[laughing]
[Olivia] The way a lot of history goes
is that "A" plus...
is added to "B," which is added to "C,"
and then it's added to "D," and it's added to "E."
And it doesn't really equal anything.
We just keep adding.
And the impulse to say it equals something is, like...
kind of the colonial impulse
to, like, add a victor to a story
and, like, put something in a textbook.
But I think it's kind of
giving ourselves the tools to, like,
digest it all and process it all.
Yeah, giving ourselves space to feel what happened,
and also, like, anyone else who interacts
with what we leave behind from this space
to feel what happened.
Feels like the only thing we can do without being,
like, manipulative
with the facts that we've collected.
♪ I switch out whips like They switch out shoes, yeah ♪
♪ Yeah, mm, mm ♪
♪ Okay, okay, mm, okay, Mm, mm, it's us, brr ♪
♪ I been rolled up, yeah, I was geekin', yeah ♪
♪ I was, huh, I was high as Fuck, tweakin', yeah, yeah ♪
♪ I was tryna strike shit, I Was tryna strike shit, strike ♪
♪ I was tryna strike shit, Like a match, late night ♪
♪ Yeah, strike like I missed it, yeah ♪
♪ Strike like I hit the pin, Yeah ♪
♪ Strike like I'm not goin' To work, strike, strike ♪
♪ Slide, slide, Shoulders, huh, shoulders ♪
♪ Stack them old hundreds, Recreate Yoda, hm ♪
♪ I don't put no crushed ice In my soda ♪
♪ Perky got her stuck Like a holster... ♪
[man] She is a heroine to some,
as a fighter for Black rights.
She is a villain to others,
who believe she hides her crimes behind revolutionary rhetoric.
[Assata] I never received justice,
and I escaped, "A," because I was afraid for my life,
and "B," because I knew that I would never receive justice.
[Mavis] Do you want to leave typing class?
Press "escape" to leave the tour.
[man 1] Man, I love Mavis Beacon.
[man 2] I love you, Mavis Beacon.
You taught me how to type. I played "Mavis Beacon..."
[man 3] I played "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing..."
[man 4] And it feels like a privi--
Seeing, this Black woman on this software,
it was really interesting.
Sorry I don't have any information about where she at,
but peace and blessings. Ashe.
["Negus Poem 1 & 2" by KeiyaA playing]
[vocalizing]
♪ Yeah... ♪
♪ Oh... ♪
♪ Mm-mm, hey, hey, hey ♪
♪ Sleep-sleep in my eye-eye ♪
♪ But still I gotta rise ♪
♪ We wind through cy-cycles Of ti-time ♪
♪ Yet we transcend this life ♪
♪ Who's supposed to ride Or die-ie for me, if not I? ♪
♪ Fear not, Know that you're divi-ine ♪
♪ Real niggas never die ♪
-♪ Oh, oh ♪ -♪ Real niggas never die ♪
-♪ Oh ♪ -♪ Real niggas never die ♪
-♪ Oh... ♪ -♪ Real niggas never die ♪
♪ Real niggas never die ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Sleep-sleep in my eye ♪
♪ But I still gotta rise ♪
♪ We wind through cycles Of time ♪
♪ Yet we transcend this life ♪
♪ Who else is supposed to ride Or die for me, if not I? ♪
♪ Fear not, know That you're divine ♪
♪ Remember real niggas Don't die ♪
♪ Real niggas transcend This life ♪
♪ Know that you'll transcend This life ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Sleep-sleep in my eye ♪
♪ But I still gotta rise ♪
♪ We wind through Cycles of time ♪
♪ Yet we transcend this life ♪
♪ Who else is supposed to ride Or die for me, if not I? ♪
♪ Fear not, know That you're divine ♪
♪ Remember real niggas Don't die ♪
♪ Real niggas transcend This life ♪
♪ Know that you'll transcend This life ♪
-♪ Who's supposed to ride ♪ -♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Real niggas don't die ♪
[music fades]