Spellbound (2002 film)


Spellbound is a 2002 documentary that was directed by Jeffrey Blitz. The film follows eight competitors in the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The film received positive reviews and won several awards, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Spellers

The spellers were Neil Kadakia, Emily Stagg, Ashley White, April DeGideo, Harry Altman, Angela Arenivar, Nupur Lala and Ted Brigham. As they appear from left to right on the DVD's cover:

Neil Kadakia

Neil missed "" as "helebore" in the bee to get ninth place. Other words Neil spelled include:,,,, and. He was sponsored by the Orange County Register. Neil is a graduate of UC Berkeley. Before he went to college, he went on a jet ski expedition with his father and his sister, Shivani, also a speller. He is currently the COO of Greens Global, a real estate company based out of San Clemente, CA. On July 3, 2011, he married Archana Sheth, also a UC Berkeley graduate. He is also an avid chess player, and has earned over 15 chess trophies in his life. His grandfather paid 1000 people in India to pray for him.

Emily Stagg

Emily Stagg was sponsored by the New Haven Register in New Haven, Connecticut and spelled:,,,,,, . She came in 6th place. In 2006, as a junior in Carleton College, she wrote an op-ed article for the New York Times of the National Spelling Bee.

Ashley White

Ashley White represented The Washington Informer in Washington, DC in the spelling bee, spelling "" before misspelling "" in the third round. Following Ashley's teenage pregnancy, a marketing consultant who had seen the movie managed to rally support from other viewers of the documentary to help Ashley into Howard University. The proctor of the Washington Informer regional spelling bee featured in the film is Mac McGarry

April DeGideo

April DeGideo, who lives in Ambler, Pennsylvania, participated in the 1998 and 1999 bees, in the latter of which she placed third, representing the Times Herald of Norristown, Pennsylvania. April graduated in 2007 from New York University with a degree in Journalism. She then went on to get a second degree in creative writing and later went on to publish two books. The study guide, and Where to start.

Harry Altman

Many critics who reviewed Spellbound singled out Altman as its most interesting "character". Roger Ebert wrote that he "has so many eccentricities that he'd be comic relief in a teenage comedy... He screws his face up into so many shapes while trying to spell a word that it's a wonder the letters can find their way to the surface." He spelled "" and "" over the course of the bee. In a prolonged clip, Altman was eliminated in the fourth round, on the word "", which he spelled "bands". He later appeared in the 2001 Bee, but was again eliminated in the fourth round. Altman went to the Academy for Engineering and Design Technology in Hackensack, New Jersey. In autumn 2005, he enrolled in the University of Chicago. In 2014 Harry completed a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Michigan, focusing on integer complexity.

Angela Arenivar

Angela Arenivar represented the Amarillo Globe-News in the 1998 and 1999 bees, being eliminated in the latter during the third round. Angela graduated from Texas A&M University in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in Spanish and earned a master's in Spanish from the University of New Mexico in 2009. She has taught Spanish in Texas public high schools. Angela now attends Texas A&M University pursuing her Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies.

Nupur Lala

Nupur Lala was the champion of the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee, spelling "" to win. Nupur won the bee against David Lewandowski, a speller from Indiana who misspelled "opsimath." She turned down an MTV reality show that would have followed her college years. In 2003, she entered University of Michigan at Ann Arbor to study brain and cognitive sciences and pre-medical studies and graduated in 2007 with a degree in Brain, Behavior and Cognitive Science. In the fall of 2014 she entered the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Ted Brigham

Ted Brigham was speller # 1. He represented the Rolla Daily Record of Rolla, Missouri. One of the more notable stories from his experience is the congratulations posted by students on the marquee in front of his high school in which "champ" was misspelled as "chapm". Ted misspelled "" in the second round, becoming the first of the eight spellers eliminated. Ted attended medical school in Kansas City, Missouri until his death in December 2007. His family chose not to disclose the circumstances of his death.

Other notable spellers

Spellbound opened to positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 98%, based on reviews from 137 critics. Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 80% based on reviews from 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Awards

The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; Yana Gorskaya's editing won the ACE Eddie award for best editing of documentary. Spellbound won the Emmy Award for Cultural/Artistic Programming and Jeffrey Blitz was nominated for directing.
In 2007, it was included as #4 of the "IDA's Top 25 Documentaries" of all-time by the members of the International Documentary Association.