Italian documentary on world's biggest rock band plucks at heartstrings at Melbourne International Film Festival

A simple fanboy desire became a national rage in Italy as Fabio Zaffagnini engineered a musical storm with 'We Are The Thousand'. The documentary, featuring a Foo Fighters’ hit number with nearly 60 million YouTube views, was screened in Australia this August.

Live music

A still from 'We Are The Thousand'. Source: Supplied by Anita Rivaroli

Highlights
  • In 2015 Italian biologist Fabio Zaffagnini gathers 1,000 musicians to perform to ‘Learn to Fly’ by Foo Fighters
  • In 2020, it became a documentary, ‘We Are The Thousand’
  • Documentary screened at Melbourne International Film Festival in August impresses Italian-Australians
This story began when an Italian biologist, Fabio Zaffagnini, thought how nice it would be if his favourite rock band, the Foo Fighters, performed in his small town of Cesena, by the azure coast of the Adriatic Sea.

To catch their attention, he knew he had to do something spectacular. So he convinced a small group of friends to help him cast singers and musicians from all over Italy and guide them to perform together, like they were the “biggest rock band in the world”.

It resulted in a documentary which made it to Melbourne recently.

The 2020 documentary features nearly 1,000 musicians playing the Foo Fighters’ hit song, Learn to Fly, in unison. Aptly titled We Are The Thousand, it was screened for the first time in Australia at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August.

Due to the lockdown in Victoria, like all other movies, We Are The Thousand was also screened online. It has been viewed over 57 million times by now on YouTube.
What these guys did was unbelievable
Dave Grohl, the founder of Foo Fighters spoke the above words when he first saw this crowd performing in the documentary.

Now known as the Rockin’ 1000 and 'the biggest rock band on earth,' this group performs all over Europe.

For the Rockin’ 1000, this was only the start.

Now the band performs at concerts, helping the dreams of all these amateur musicians come true.

We Are The Thousand won an Audience Award at this year’s SXSW, a film festival in the US, and also received good press by Flickering Myth, a leading entertainment blog in the UK.
The Italian-Australian community reacted enthusiastically to the documentary, for what was described as “a joyful moment” after a year that forced people to approximate togetherness online.

Some even said, “there’s something heart-warming about Anita Rivaroli’s [the documentary maker] celebration of the shared power of live music”.
I felt this was the beginning of something amazing
“People were showing up for the audition. Musicians of different ages and backgrounds tried to be part of this adventure. Teenagers, kids with their dads, amateur musicians, ladies and gents reunited with just one thing in common: the passion for music,” Ms Rivaroli told SBS Italian. 
rock music
A moment captured during the Rockin'1000 concert. Source: Courtesy of Anita Rivaroli
To play 1,000 instruments in sync is not easy but after months of planning, casting and rehearsing, 'the world’s biggest rock band' was finally ready.

They filmed themselves and uploaded the video on YouTube, hoping for a miracle – to get viral and catch the attention of the Foo Fighters in the US.

The video reached 15 million views within three days of being uploaded on YouTube and media from all over the world reported the news.

When the message finally reached Mr Grohl three days later, he was amazed.

He replied to them saying he was touched by what they did for him. 

“It was really beautiful that you have come up with such an insane idea and plan," said Mr Grohl.
These moments show you the reach of music and the connection that it has with people you’ve never met thousands of miles away
"It took my breath away,” Mr Grohl is quoted to have said about the documentary.


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3 min read
Published 14 September 2021 2:21pm
Updated 14 September 2021 2:24pm
By Elisabetta Merati

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