Are You With Us?
Spellbound
By Shalimar Sahota
February 25, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Harry - A hyperactive talker who made it on the cover of all the posters.
Angela – A girl who finds life boring in Texas and has Mexican parents who speak little English.
Ted – A boy who had never even heard of the Spelling Bee before.
April - A shy self-taught girl who would rather be studying five to six hours (on a school day) than go to the mall.
Neil – An Indian boy, receiving lots of after school teaching, four nights a week.
Nupur – A violin playing Indian girl, who was eliminated in the third round the previous year.
Emily – A girl who doesn't like spelling, but takes part because she likes to compete.
Ashley – The daughter of a single working class mother in Washington DC.
Director Jeffrey Blitz runs the first half with each child given a few minutes on how they prepare, what their parents think, and occasionally a few things that have nothing to do with the Spelling Bee. Angela imagines herself winning and says, "I picture myself appearing on Rosie O Donnell." After Neil has a serious spelling study with his father Rajesh, he is told, "You've done 4,000 words and you got one mistake. You're doing good." Also a dog licks the leg of April's mother while she's being interviewed, and she doesn't seem to mind! It's moments like this that make you question whether the kids and the families that are taking part are all just a little bit weird.
Ted's teacher says his trip to the National Spelling Bee will make him realize, "Hey, there's a lot of people out there that are like me. I will be able to fit in." Also one mother at the Nationals says her daughter is like a geek (!) "because she's into the words and the vocabulary," but amongst the other participants at the finals, "she's one of the crowd." Understandably they both mean well, but it does come off strangely worrying, suggesting that outside of this environment, they just wouldn't fit in at all.
With the second half focusing on the finals at the National Spelling Bee itself, the film suddenly turns into an intense and mentally draining experience. During the first few rounds these kids have to wait ages for their moment to spell a word that most of us hardly ever use in everyday conversation. Words that make you realise that you sure as hell can't spell any better. Just one letter wrong and they're out. While here, one of Neil's teachers reveals that Neil's grandfather in India has paid 1,000 people to pray around the clock for Neil to win. And if he does, then he's going to pay to feed 5,000 people in India. With that kind of pressure you can't help but feel that if he loses, then his father is going to nail him to a wall and whip him.
Like a reality TV show (someone is bound to cash in on this in the future), everyone has one or two they feel like rooting for. Maybe it's someone you feel relates closely to your own background, or general views. For me, it's Emily Stagg, since she's more of a realist than any of the other participants, believing that she'll do well (having placed highly in previous years), but probably won't win. "I'm not holding my breath for anything great," she says and proclaims, "George Thampy will probably do well." So who's he?
George Thampy is a participant introduced at the last minute, who came in fourth the previous year. Blitz probably didn't get the time to include a segment for him or his family, so while at the finals he manages to devote a few minutes to him.
That four of the participants the documentary focuses on survive through to the final ten is quite an achievement for the filmmakers themselves. However, it's worth noting that some of the opening interviews were actually filmed after the Nationals, and that the DVD even has deleted scenes with three additional spellers cut from the final film. It does help bring the length down to a trim 90 minutes, but at the same time, even with eight participants, there's really only so much you can show and say about them before it starts to feel repetitive, which is likely why Blitz has strained to focus on as diverse a group as possible.
The film played numerous festivals, gaining heaps of critical praise, and won eight awards for best documentary along the way, even an Oscar nomination (it lost out to Bowling For Columbine). It opened on April 30, 2003 on just one screen; the Film Forum in New York City. It took in $17,508 on its opening weekend. The film increased its take slightly on its second week with $17,589. Word-of-mouth was starting to spread faster than chlamydia; for as the screen count increased so too did the box office takings. By its eighth week it took just over $330,000 from 93 screens, bringing its total to $2.1 million. With the blockbusters raking in the cash over the summer, Spellbound was quietly turning into a success story. Running for over 30 weeks, it amassed $5.7 million. No budget data is available, probably because the bulk of the cost came down to a DV camera, traveling to visit willing participants and some editing software.
It wasn't long before feature films themed around the Spelling Bee came along, most likely trying to capitalise on the success of Spellbound, such as Bee Season and Akeelah and the Bee (the Scripps National Spelling Bee actually recommends an all school showing of this film).
Jeffrey Blitz followed up by writing and directing the quirky high school comedy film Rocket Science. He has since gone back to documentaries with his latest film Lucky, focusing on how winning the lottery can bring joy and assassination attempts.
It may not look like much for some watching, but for the children it can be emotionally extreme what they have to go through (some are crying after having been knocked out). A decade on, it's interesting to see this slice of life and even feel the need to discover how things turned out for the participants. Entertaining and instructive, it also pulls off a positive show of multi-cultural America coming together.
Directed by – Jeffrey Blitz
Starring – Harry Altman, Angela Arenivar, Ted Brigham, April DeGideo, Neil Kadakia, Nupur Lala, Emily Stagg, Ashley White, George Thampy
Length – 93 minutes
Cert – U / G