If you have ever caught the National Spelling Bee on ESPN whilechannel surfing, besides wondering what it is doing on ESPN, youwere probably wondering what would drive a kid to take this up as agoal.
Sweaty palms, bad hair and nervous twitching are standard, butout of your curiosity for the freakishness of it all comes respect.These kids, no older than 12, are spelling words you have neverheard of-- spellings that defy every spelling rule you memorized ingrade school and amazing even themselves.
Directed by Jeffrey Blitz, the newly released documentary,Spellbound, follows eight children through their local and regionalcompetitions to the 1999 Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee. Healso meets the parents and gets a feel for what the children'slives are really like.
Up close these kids are not what you would expect. These are notchildren who are forced by stage parents to practice spelling.These are kids with a goal and a dream of winning who have combinedtalent with the dedication of an athlete to prove something tothemselves.
Angela Arenivar, for example, comes from a painfully small townin Texas where her parents settled after illegally crossing theborder from Mexico 20 years ago. Her father, Ubaldo, doesn't speakEnglish very well, but is very proud of his daughter for herphenomenal ability to spell. Angela's brother says the increasededucational opportunity in America was the primary reason hisparents brought them here.
Ted Brigham is a seemingly normal bright guy in a typical smalltown where he remains an outsider. His high school guidancecounselor says she feels going to Washington, D.C., to the finalswill show Ted there are many people just like him.
Neil Kadakia's father and mother drill Neil with thousands ofwords per day, which he spells at lightning speed.
His grandfather, back in India is paying for 1,000 Indians topray and chant for his win, and if he wins, his grandfather haspledged that he will feed 1,000 starving Indians. The pressure thiskid is under is amazing.
But little April Degideo puts all of her pressure on herself.Her parents resemble Edith and Archie Bunker and want to make sureshe is somewhat a normal kid while April insists on studying eighthours a day.
Ashley White, from Washington, D.C., took the contest in stride,saying she was leaving it in God's hands. Doing more praying thanstudying, you watch as her mother painfully mispronounces words andcomplains about healthcare while her daughter takes on the world.Angela's teachers call her a perfect child growing out of imperfectcircumstances.
However, it's the kids like Harry Altman that give thestereotype of spelling bee contestant-- twitchy, obnoxious and anoverall spaz who searches for the next letter for his word in hisbrain by rolling his eyes into his head and twisting and contortinghis face.
What is amazing to me is watching the parents-- the kidcontestants know a lot more about spelling than anyone in theaudience-- it is hard for parents to root for perfection insomething they themselves could never do.
It's a movie about dreams, having them and striving for them,about finding a future and a definition for themselves.
Still, the kids take losing and winning rather well, becausethey know even qualifying for the nationals sets them apart.
It takes a certain kind of person, who, by the way, will succeedat anything, to compete at that level and have that kind ofself-drive. The very nature of America is shown through a simplespelling bee-- rich and poor, Hispanic, black and white. The commonthread between the kids is the desire to seize every opportunityavailable to them.
As Kadakia's father, an immigrant from India, said "in Americaif you work hard, no matter what your goal is, you can getthere."
