All hail Air Guitar Nation

Pub date June 7, 2007
SectionPixel Vision

Bang your head and break out your best moves, rockers. Director Alexandra Lipsitz’s Air Guitar Nation was one of the sweet, funny, and shockingly heart-warming surprises of the Asian American film fest this year; you get another chance to see it at the Red Vic today, June 7.

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C-Diddy rocks the haus in Air Guitar Nation.

And if you’re still slacking, know that it comes out in August on DVD. Of course, if that’s not enough know that the real thing the doc is based upon – the US Air Guitar Championships started yesterday in DC and ends in SF at the Independent on June 28. So gentlemen – and ladies – start your night moves – and remember the US national finals are in NYC on Aug. 16 and the world championships are, as always, in Oulu, Finland in September.

I spoke to Lipsitz this spring when her doc took its first turn through SF theaters.

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Director Alexandra Lipsitz.

Bay Guardian: What brought you to air guitar?

Alexandra Lipsitz: Kriston Rucker and Cedric Devitt, the guys in the movie who are the narrators – they read about it in the Wall Street Journal, went and filmed in Finland in 2002 and came back and pitched it as a television show to Magic Elves, the company I work with. My sister owns the company, Jane Lipsitz, along with Dan Cutforth. We do shows like Project Greenlight, Project Runway, Top Chef, Last Comic Standing, a lot of reality TV shows. Kriston and Cedric brought the idea to them as sort of an anti-American Idol television show.