SEATTLE — When Gino Yevdjevich, the founder of the gypsy punk band Kultur Shock steps outside his Seattle home, he sees a world that has forgotten the lessons of Sarajevo.
"I think it's important for us to remember what's going to happen when you lose what you have and you're much, much closer than you think you are," he said.
32 years ago Yevdjevich woke up in his hometown, a city that once celebrated its many cultures, to find Sarajevo at war and under siege by extreme Nationalists led by Bosnian Serb commander Slobodon Milosevic.
Yevdjevich's life and music are both dedicated to trying to prevent something like that from happening again.
"Silence is the most dangerous thing ever," he said.
Noise. Music. The Arts. As a new documentary "Kiss The Future" reveals, these were the things that made Sarajevo civilians feel alive for the four years they were under sniper fire and cut from the rest of the world. Yevdjevich, who appears in the doc, put on nightly performances of the musical "Hair" even after a sound man died and a drummer of another band lost his hand.
"What would you do if somebody tells you 'OK you got 5 minutes,'" he asked in the film. "What would you do? You do what you like the most."
"That's what this film is about," said director Nenad Cicin-Sain. "Those people who were forced to live under these circumstance but found the light in the darkness."
It was a light that reached one of the biggest and most outspoken bands of its time. U2 used part of their "ZOO TV" tour to spotlight citizens under siege.
"Somebody said courage is the definition of grace under pressure," Bono said, in an interview at the time. "That's a good definition of the people of Sarajevo."
Produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, the documentary also features interviews with Bono and The Edge, former president Bill Clinton and CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour.
It is a moment in history, well worth examining, that argues music can make a difference. Yevdjevich takes the point one extra step further.
"If enough of us refuse to participate in insanity, and start singing at the same time insanity will stop," Yevdjevich said.
Kiss The Future opens at AMC Theaters across Western Washington on Friday. Kultur Shock's latest release is a CD of acoustic performances called Acoustic Live.
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