Seeking Mavis Beacon: A lifestyle, a mirror, a portal.

My life is the way this documentary feels.

Lifestyle. I have found it exceedingly hard to explain to people what it was like growing up as a Black girl on the internet when I was too young to be on the internet. ‘Seeking Mavis Beacon’ is the first document that I can hand a person and go - there. That’s what it is. Fabulation, Mandela effects, a bunch of staging, and a lot of unanswered questions, and then being right. And then and then the most insane needle drops that last 15 seconds.

I may have absolutely nothing in common geographically or culturally with Jazmin or Olivia - but we grew up on the same street, in different universes. Parasocial? Yes. But in 2024, parasocial is about 50% of the social now. Get into it, I guess.

ZEBA BLAY MENTIONED! CHERYL DUNYE MENTIONED! LONG COVID MENTIONED! MASKING WHEN NO ONE ELSE IS MASKING MENTIONED!

Mirror. Though Mavis Beacon never made it this side of the Atlantic, the story of internet rabbit holes, cultural gaslighting, and the shaping of reality in lieu of memory - the idea of false and true blending and bending and having you doubt and undoubt yourself, in a liminal space where your childhood and a wikipedia page and your dad’s garage and an article on page 7 of google simply don’t do math together - that’s, like…a sunday for me. Likely, if you’re reading this, you relate.

Also, the film is not just observing this - there are scenes I actively have reason to believe are fake as fuck, and the film says as much from the first title card. All you can do is trust your intuition. It’s so fun though, I was lauging throughout. I love it. WHAT DOES IT MEAN!

Portal. I think it was also just nice to hang out with the coolest girls you know for two hours as they mash an investigative documentary with video essay with virtual art - hearing from other cool people and getting immersed in it.

I watch both Jazmin and Olivia’s careers with great interest. Consider me a super stan - i’m glad I hadn’t seen the film before meeting them or I would have been incoherent with excitement. Listen in to the LFF recap of SOPHISTICULTURE for an amazing talk with the two of them about AI, Truth and Intuition.