Spellbound (2002)

General

Jeff Blitz's Academy Award-nominated documentary is an affecting, inspiring look at eight American children as they make their way to compete in the 1999 National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. Defying all stereotypes and categorizations, the spellers that Blitz chooses to focus on run the ethnic and socioeconomic gamut. Emily is from wealthy New Haven, Connecticut, while April, the daughter of a bar owner from Pennsylvania, spends her summers studying. Harry is an intense, quick-witted boy from New Jersey, while Ashley is the African-American daughter of a single Washington, D.C. mother. Gifted Florida resident Nupur is the daughter of Indian parents while Ted hails from a small Missouri town where physical prowess is prized over mental ability. The daughter of Mexican immigrant parents, driven Angela comes from Texas, and Neil is a well-prepared East Indian boy from the wealthy California coast. Blitz provides several minutes at home with each child before we accompany them to the National Bee, where we are swiftly reminded that only one of them has a shot at winning. As engrossing and emotional as the best fiction, one comes away from SPELLBOUND with the feeling that--whether victorious or not--the children whose tales it tells are walking into limitless futures.