Episode 81 – ‘We Are The Thousand’ Director Anita Rivaroli

The film documents one man’s dream of capturing Foo Fighters attention

The documentary We Are The Thousand captures the miraculous story of how Foo Fighters fandom turned into the biggest rock band in the world. The film takes fans backstage with Rockin’ 1000 where a thousand musicians gathered in Cesena, Italy in July 2015 to perform “Learn To Fly” in hopes of convincing the Foo Fighters to perform in their small Italian town.

Written and directed by Anita Rivaroli, the Italian-language film (with English subtitles) made its premiere at SXSW Film Festival 2021, a year later than expected. It was originally scheduled for last year’s festival, which was ultimately canceled due the ongoing global crisis. We Are The Thousand was named the SXSW Audience Award winner for 2020 Spotlight Section.

Rivaroli chats with Buddy Iahn via her home in Rome, Italy, where she’s been on lockdown since the pandemic began last spring. We get a little more insight into the making of the film and how Fabio Zaffagnini’s idea brought the Foo Fighters to perform a three hour private concert for the band and crew in Cesena.

The full video is attached below.

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Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com