Air Guitar Nation
credits:
Director: Alexandra LipsitzProducers: Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz, Anna Barber
USA 2006 | 82 mins | 35mm | English
2003: the year air guitar broke. Forget spelling bees and hot dog eating contests; another kind of competitive sport has taken the U.S. by storm and captivated audiences coast to coast: air guitar, an event, some say, that is the truest competitive art form.
The exhilarating AIR GUITAR NATION, winner of awards at the SXSW and Tribeca Film Festivals, chronicles the birth of the U.S. Air Guitar Championships and the intense arch-rivalry between the two premiere U.S. air guitarists: Dan “Bjorn Turoque” Crane (“To air is human, to air guitar, divine”) and David “C-Diddy” Jung (“Asian fury, air supremacy”).
Following Turoque and C-Diddy from New York to L.A. to Oulo, Finland (seat of the World Championship since 1996), AIR GUITAR NATION captures every sensational minute behind the music as the two seek to become the first U.S. world champion. Facing fierce competition from the likes of L.A.’s “Nikki Tits” and “Krye Tuff” and The Netherland’s “Funky Jordi,” the two perform in front of hundreds of fans, their shredding and riffing evaluated by sharp-eyed judges who score according to originality, charisma and most importantly, airness: defined as “the extent to which the performance transcends the medium and becomes a higher form of artistic expression.”
Who will prevail? Who will be the first American to compete on the world air guitar stage? Bad boy Bjorn Turoque, or Hello-Kitty sporting C-Diddy? Whose airness will reign supreme? Only Alexandra Lipsitz’s AIR GUITAR NATION holds the answers.
—Chi-hui Yang
