Spellbound (2002)
by Parama Chaudhury
Nominated for Best Documentary at this year's Academy Awards, this is one documentary everyone will love.
The word "alkali" will remain with me till my dying day. I was 10 years old, had never had a real chemistry class and therefore I was blissfully unaware of the possibility that that 'c'-as-in-cat sound could be spelled with a 'k'. So I was eliminated early on the regional Spelling Bee, and to this day, the sound of that word ups my heart rate. This means that I fall squarely within the built-in audience for Spellbound, Jeff 
Blitz's documentary on the Spelling Bee. I reveal this for purposes of full disclosure and to point out one of the many things that augur well for the film: it has a niche market by definition.
For a first-time director who wants to make a documentary on a tiny budget, the subject of the Spelling Bee is a brilliant choice. It is a competition, so you can count on the element of drama to draw in some viewers, and since there are no second chances - one wrong 'c' instead of a 'k', and you're history - there is bound to be tons of suspense. As a curiosity, it's quite harmless, the people involved are high-achievers so that you don't run any serious risk of being castigated for turning the situation into a freak show, and it highlights that ultimately egalitarian mainstay of life in America, competition. Moreover, the Spelling Bee is not a life-and-death affair, so that when the curtain falls, no matter what, you can pull off a happy ending. In fact, this film is about the closest a documentary can come to a dramatic feature, while at the same time, its scope is so small that you can enjoy with the same light feeling as a romantic comedy.
Given all these advantages going in, how well does Blitz fare? He follows eight children from all over the country and a decent cross-section of the population, as they prepare for the national finals of the Scripps-Howard Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. The children run the gamut from second-generation immigrants whose parents do not speak English to second-generation high-achievers in the Northeast, and from a taciturn farm boy from Missouri to a hyper-active, wisecracking charmer from New Jersey. It would be difficult to come up with characters with more broad appeal if you resorted to pure fiction.
Blitz's treatment of these characters is somewhat casual. He doesn't really delve into their motives for taking part in the Bee or even into who these kids are in the larger scheme of things. But in most cases, this actually works, since the tone of the documentary is exactly in synch with the kids' attitudes. The Bee appears to be just another phase of childhood; when you are in the midst of it, you take it very seriously, but when it passes, you are relieved that it is over, and move on to the next phase. There do, however, seem to be some stories worth following up - Angela whose parents walked over the border from Mexico and whose father still does not speak a word of English, and Ted whose extremely sharp mind and calm self-confidence is at odds with the laid-back pastoral atmosphere of his hometown, are the two that spring to mind immediately - and critics may complain about Blitz's lack of curiosity about these parallel narratives. This criticism is misdirected; Blitz is not making a film about the American dream, and there is no deeper message behind this little film. The focus is on the Spelling Bee, and so each of the competitors, rich and poor, immigrant and native-born alike, get equal screen time. I have to admit that I remain interested in what will happen to Ted, and whether April, whose father ruefully admitted that he was not exactly a success story, will be able to work her 
way out of the ordinary. But that is quite definitely another film.
Spellbound has the ability to demand your attention, and this is not just because of the coverage of the final competition where the tension is palpable as one by one, each of the kids whom we have been introduced to get eliminated. The most interesting parts of the film are the interviews with the parents, where each describes how his or her child reached this stage and the way in which they contribute to their child's preparation for the test. As we switch between cases, these adults piece together the answers to questions like "Why participate in the Bee?" and "How does winning the Bee even matter?". One father muses that the single-minded devotion required for this kind of competition is something that can be applied to any task, so that this kind of skill will ensure success in the future too. A teacher observes that some of these kids feel isolated among their classmates, and a trip to the Spelling Bee introduces them to other smart kids which helps them build a social network. Some of this sounds a little facetious and even patronizing, but Blitz has chosen to interview people who sound earnest and seem to be invested in these kids, and the director also keeps these sequences short and tight, so that none of this sounds like a sermon.
Cinematically, Spellbound is nothing spectacular, though there are some cute shots which liven up the proceedings. Witness the congratulatory message on the Hooters restaurant board, or Harry-the- ebullient-Jersey-kid's quip that "'Hooked on Phonics' worked for me!", or even the revelation that Neil, whose parents are Indian immigrants, cannot recognize the word 'Darjeeling'. But for the most part, the director's contribution seems to have been in choosing the kids, and then making some good choices in the cutting room. He has left the subjects alone for the most part, and indulged the kids' obvious desire to play to the camera. It turns out that this is the smartest thing he could have done. Since there is no big picture to this film, no profound message, the closer it stays to its subjects the better. This makes Spellbound a thoroughly enjoyable film which will probably not achieve Documentary Hall of Fame status. But it will increase the popularity of documentaries as even those who are generally not into non-fiction will appreciate the real-life drama of this "sports" flick.
Parama Chaudhury is a graduate student, an ex-writing instructor and a budding freelance writer based in New York City.
Got a problem? Email us at filmmonthly@hotmail.com