Long-time readers of SFist will know that we love (love!) all things Air Guitar, both for its obvious silliness and its devotion to the rawk. So when we heard that Air Guitar Nation was playing at the San Francisco Independent Asian Film Festival, we knew we were destined to see it. How was it? Well, we’ll describe it using the one word we heard other people describe it-- awesome.

It's true. We hung out afterwards in the lobby of the theater and watched as people walked out. Everyone was smiling and we heard many a-people drop the "a" word about the movie. During the movie, people laughed, cheered, and rocked out in their way-- it was that fun.

So now the big question: what is a movie about air guitar-ness doing at the Asian American Film Festival? Good question. Turns out that the very first American contestant in the International Air Guitar Competition was a nice Korean boy by the name of David "C Diddy" Jung. C Diddy's outfit was a kimono, silk pants, a headscarf, and a Hello Kitty breastplate. He also constantly referred to his act as "Asian Fury." Need we say more?

The movie takes us through the founding of the air guitar competition in the States (we were latecomers to the competition) through the American finals and then to the world finals held in Finland. On the way, we meet contestants, the people who started it, fans, and previous winners. As he progresses through the competition, C Diddy becomes a bit of a media star, attracts a fan base, and travels over to Finland to among other things, attend Air Guitar camp.

One of the reasons the movie works is Chung is such a nice, engaging guy that it's easy to root for him. He's a bit of an all-American goofball who doesn't take it seriously enough to philosophize on the deeper meanings of air guitar like a few people do, but committed enough to take it to the finals. This is in comparison to his main rival, Dan "Bjorn Turoque," a man who takes the thing a little too seriously (he thinks it's his destiny to be the world's greatest air guitarist) and keeps on turning up at competitions in an attempt to beat Chung and take the crown. This despite the fact he keeps on losing. Turoque is still out there, air guitaring his way through the world. In fact, he was the emcee when we saw the competition last year. He even wrote the ending song of the movie that plays when the credits roll.

But what makes the movie really fun is the competition. Among others, there's the accountant by day, glam rocker by night; the guy in a wheelchair who pretends to recover the ability to walk after rocking out; and the Belgian winner who dresses up like Jesus and strums away like the rocking Messiah. The movie strikes the perfect tone somewhere between taking it seriously and reveling in the humor in it all. The Belgian guy, in fact, perfectly encapsulates everything right about both the movie and the whole air guitar thing— when we first meet him, he comes off as some brooding artiste ruminating on what makes a good air guitarist, accusing most of his competition of being air guitar poseurs. Your first reaction to him is basically, lighten up dude. But then, when he sports the Jesus look while rocking out in the competition, we realize he’s just been goofing the whole time and he just revels in the fun ot it all too

This movie rocks.

Air Guitar Nation screens again on Saturday in San Jose.