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Image credit: Spellbound: Stephen Lovekin/Filmmagic.com

Blitz and Welch took a crash course in operating digital video and sound equipment (the film was financed almost entirely by maxing out 14 personal credit cards). Then in January 1999, they hit the road to meet the participants' families -- a tricky game of geographical hopscotch, given that regional bees take place simultaneously all over the country. ''I wanted human-interest stories,'' Blitz explains. ''I wanted to create a portrait of the bee that would feel honest to the kids who participate in it.'' And he did -- through an engaging and diverse cast of characters, among them effusive Ashley White, now 17, who describes her life in a Washington, D.C., housing project as ''a movie where I overcome trials and tribulations,'' and New Jersey's hyperactive Harry Altman, whose then-12-year-old antics included speaking in the voice of what he calls ''a musical robot.''

Across the board, ''Spellbound'''s stars are pleased with the final product. ''It's an incredible feeling to be a part of this project. I've always just loved words, and the filmmakers came along and captured that,'' says Angela Arenivar, 17, the daughter of non-English-speaking Mexican immigrants whose story has been hailed by critics as one of the most touching. ''I thought they were working on something small, for a college class. I had no clue it would escalate into something so huge, you know?''

As for Scripps Howard's assessment, there's not a ding! in earshot. ''At first we were extremely reserved in our support because we guard our image very closely,'' says director -- and 1981 NSB champion -- Paige P. Kimble. ''But we love the movie. What we appreciate most is that it presents the whole picture of the experience.'' (To prove its hearty endorsement, Scripps Howard is screening ''Spellbound'' at the Nationals this year, for competitors and their families.)

Of course, in the four long years since ''Spellbound'' wrapped, the cast has grown up (most are about to graduate from high school), making the film a sort of time capsule of their younger selves. ''The week of the bee, everything was such a blur,'' says Nupur Lala, now 18, who returns to the Nationals this year as a hostess. ''Now I can look back and see what I was going through then.'' Which, she reluctantly acknowledges, included the ''dark side'' of the bee. ''One thing no speller would like to admit is that sense of relief when somebody gets out. It's terrible -- you're hanging out with these people all week, and suddenly you're competing against them.''

And while plenty of ''Spellbound'''s wunderkinder miss the excitement of the event, none pine for the intense studying -- not even 17-year-old April DeGideo, the self-described pessimist whose rigorous daily regimen precluded such adolescent activities as hanging out at the mall, much to the astonishment of her parents. ''I have more time now to write and read and watch TV,'' she says. ''I'm pretty much a normal teenager.''