Air Guitar Nation Premiere: Aireoke After Party Videos
Tuesday March 20, 2007: Air Guitar Nation had it's premiere in NYC and an ass-kicking after party at the Cutting Room. How does one celebrate the premiere of such a rock-fueled film? By rocking out, of course. Here are some highlights from the evening...
AIR GUITAR NATION tells the story of the rise of competitive air guitar in the United States -- but it's also got something very important to say in this time of global uncertainty. Check this clip out, and you'll understand:
The AFI screenings will be at the famous Arclight cinema - one of the best in the country. A smashing place to rock, as far as we are concerned.
Also, last weekend, the film played to wildly enthusiastic audiences at the 7th annual Woodstock Film Festival in upstate New York. REVIEW FROM THE TIMES HERALD RECORD:
"Both the film and its subject matter are funny, yes. Hilarious even. But both also reveal a real depth and sense of dedication as viewers are introduced to larger-than-life characters with names like C-Diddy and Björn Türoque (pronounced "byorn to rock"). In 2003, C-Diddy was the first-ever U.S. representative in the Air Guitar World Championships held annually in Finland. And Björn was the runner-up who wouldn't give up ... and still hasn't.
A couple of weeks ago, at the Edinburgh Film Festival, Bjorn joined Alexandra Lipsitz, director of Air Guitar Nation, and Cedric Devitt, one of the founders of US Air Guitar, to screen the film. It was the first time we had seen it with a non-American audience and we were a bit worried, since it is a very American film at heart. At the end of the film, they clapped politely, and we were concerned it might not have translated. But once the Q&A began, it was obviously they loved it completely. It turns out the Scots are simply polite moviegoers.
It was later though, at the bar during the after-party that their true feelings came out.
“Re-speeeeeect! NO! RE-speeeeeeeeeeect!” shouted a gigantic lumbering inebriated Scotsman with a brogue as thick as haggis, nearly hugging Bjorn to death. He apparently loved the film immensely. Others told Bjorn it was literally the funniest movie they had ever seen. (Could this be true? Did Over the Top never make it to Scotland?) Suffice to say, the film was a big hit.
We had two Aireoke parties. Both were incredibly amazing, sweaty affairs.
Here's a Swedish dude doing Europe's "The Final Countdown" - not the best air guitar song (better for air keys, really) but he rocked.
The Scots proved they could rock as hard (or harder) than the rest, and Cedric (a/k/a Aer Lingus) got a ride on the shoulders of another gargantuan local.
For a short respite from the madness of air guitar, Alexandra, Cedric & his girlfriend Minji (Bjorn's personal air guitar costume designer, btw) and Bjorn took a relaxing journey up to the utterly gorgeous Isle of Skye in the Scottish Highlands.
About an hour into the drive we got a flat tire.
“Front left tire?” asked the Norman-Bates-from-Psycho-meets-Jack-Torrence-from-The-Shining B&B proprietor, under the watchful gaze of taxidermic birds of prey.
“Yep,” said Cedric, who had been driving at the time of the puncture.
“Americans,” he said, shaking his head. “Always the front left.”
(Recall that in the UK, they drive on the opposite side of the road).
While changing the tire, we were attacked by a swarm—literally, a SWARM!—of blood-sucking midges: tiny white bugs that nibble on one’s flesh.
The next day we took a hike through a bog, getting lost and covered in mud. We then went fishing for four hours and caught some air salmon.
It was a comedy of errors (air-ors?) really, but we had a good time.
The makers and stars of AIR GUITAR NATION (winner of the audience award at SXSW, and official selection at Tribeca, Silverdocs, Full Frame, Britdoc and Edinburgh) headed to a small resort town in northern Michigan known as Traverse City for Michael Moore's second annual Traverse City Film Festival.
It was amazing.
We arrived in time for our midnight screening (added after our first screening sold out) and went down to the greenroom to meet Mr. Moore.
We were blown away. The screening was great, and we went back to our insanely VIP accomodations to drink until 4am, in classic air guitar style.
The next day, after a bit of leisure time on the balcony and at the Pirate's Cove Fun Park (Bjorn finally beat C-Diddy at something - Mini Golf!) we headed over to the 7pm SOLD OUT screening. The line was around the block.
We watched from the balcony of the beautiful State Theater as Michael Moore got up on stage to introduce the film. Moore noticed a young kid in the front row and asked him if he was excited to see Air Guitar Nation. The kid said he was the first in line.
"You were first in line, and now you are sitting in the front row?" asked Moore.
"Yeah!" said the kid.
"Get up here on stage!" said Moore. And the kid, whose name we were told was Max, joined Michael on stage.
The audience went nuts - for Max, for Michael, and for the film.
We came out for the Q&A and got a standing ovation, and tons of great questions from the audience including one for Björn: "What's the worst injury you've sustained playing air guitar." Little did he know what foreshadowing lay in that question...
We hung out with Max a little bit afterwards. He is the coolest kid EVER.
We headed off to the Aireoke after party at the Loading Dock bar, and it was off the hook, so to speak. Lots of great participants, some great air bands, demonstrations by Björn and C-Diddy...
As the evening wore on, it was time for a duet with Björn and The Diddy.
They chose "Good Times Bad Times" the Zepp song they played a duet to at the very first air guitar competition in New York, 2003. At one point, Björn got up on the tall PA speaker to rock from on-high.
Then he got on top of C-Diddy's shoulders (stealing William Ocean's move form this year's finals) and played the rocking Page solo from there.
At the end of the solo, however, BT zigged when he shoulda zagged, and C-Diddy bucked when he shoulda...done something else.
In other words, Björn did a massive faceplant from C-Diddy's shoulders directly on to the stage, landing on his face, shoulder and left hand--which we immediately assumed was broken.
After a few moments in the men's room with some ice, all was well again, and the rocking continued! His hand, thankfully, was not broken.
The next night, we went to the closing night party and got to meet some more of the truly wonderful people of Traverse City. They rock! Then we found out we won an award, but nobody was sure what it was...turns out we won the Audience Award - silver medal.
We finished off the evening at Michael's Surprise Screening where he premiered a "secret film" he has been working on about the 2004 election called The Great Slacker '04 Uprising. It totally blew us away. The film chronicles Michael's 60+ city tour during the '04 election and all the rallies he organized trying to get young people to vote. We were so energized and excited by it. Of course, despite the fact that we know how it ends (TRAGICALLY!) it somehow remains a completely uplifting film. We were ready to start an air guitar mid-term election rally! It could happen...
Last, we hung out with Mr. Moore on the street in front of the theater to gush to him about his movie. It was all fairly surreal. And, totally incredible.
We watched from the balcony of the beautiful State Theater as Michael Moore got up on stage to introduce the film. Moore noticed a young kid in the front row and asked him if he was excited to see Air Guitar Nation. The kid said he was the first in line.
We hung out with Max a little bit afterwards. He is the coolest kid EVER.
Last, we hung out with Mr. Moore on the street in front of the theater to gush to him about his movie. It was all fairly surreal. And, totally incredible.
