''Spelling the Dream'' is a 2020 documentary film directed by Sam Rega and written by Sam Rega and Chris Weller. The premise of the film revolves around competitive spelling bees, which have been dominated by Indian-Americans in recent times.
The film follows the life of four kids:
Akash Vukoti
Akash Vukoti is an Indian-American spelling child prodigy and TV personality from San Angelo, Texas. He was the first-ever first grader to qualify for and compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and first appeared in the NBC TV show ''Lit ...
, Tejas Muthusamy, Ashrita Gandhari and Shourav Dasari.
The film also features interviews with
Jacques Bailly
Jacques A. Bailly (born 1966) is an American professor who serves as the Scripps National Spelling Bee's official pronouncer, a position he has held since 2003.James Maguire. American Bee: the National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds'. ...
,
Kevin Negandhi
Kevin Negandhi (born March 20, 1975) is an American sports anchor for ESPN's ''SportsCenter'' as well as ''ESPN College Football on ABC''.
In addition to hosting ''SportsCenter'', he also hosts ''Baseball Tonight'', ''College Football Live'' and ...
,
Sanjay Gupta,
Fareed Zakaria
Fareed Rafiq Zakaria (; born 20 January 1964) is an Indian-American journalist, political commentator, and author. He is the host of CNN's ''Fareed Zakaria GPS'' and writes a weekly paid column for ''The Washington Post.'' He has been a columnist ...
,
Hari Kondabolu
Hari Karthikeya Kondabolu (born October 21, 1982)Beem, p. 38 is an American stand-up comic. His comedy covers subjects such as race, inequity, and Indian stereotypes. He was a writer for ''Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell'' and the creator of th ...
, Valerie Browning, Srinivas Ayyagari, and Pawan Dhingra.
[
]
Release
''Spelling the Dream'' was released worldwide on June 3, 2020, on Netflix.
Reception
The film picked up positive reviews from The New York Times,The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
, The Adelaide Review, and the Singaporean version of Harper's Bazaar
''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...
.
References
External links
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* {{IMDb title, 6193522
Netflix original documentary films
2020 documentary films
2020 films
Indian-American culture
Films about spelling competitions
2020s English-language films
English-language documentary films