Spellbound [2002]  Region 2 DVD



DVD available at Amazon.co.uk
This is a great documentary and a truly good watch in the class.
Pre-watch questions:
What's a 'spelling bee?'
Who are 'Americans?'
From the Lawerence.com Review titled Documentary captures spelling bee spectacle

"Hellebore."
"Cephalalgia."
"Wheedle."
Huh?

No wonder stress and obsessiveness are so visible at the National Spelling Bee. The words the contestants are supposed to know are so obscure they might as well be extinct. And these are just some of the examples the group of eighth-graders got right.

The Oscar-nominated documentary "Spellbound" observes the 1999 bee and the 249 contenders (culled from more than 9,000 competing junior high schools) who battled in it. First-time director Jeffrey Blitz makes the picture more than just a nerve-wracking competitive spectacle. He also turns the proceedings into a microcosm of America and in many respects, an essay on the American Dream.

The film focuses on eight specific spellers, ages 12-13, who in their own way are as memorable as any characters in a fiction film.

Among them is Angela, the daughter of Mexican parents who illegally immigrated to Texas and who still don't speak English after 20 years in the states. Her father likes to joke that the cows in his care can't speak it either.


Posted: Tue - April 20, 2004 at 04:39 PM            

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