Documentary featuring U2 to open the 2023 Tribeca Festival

Documentary featuring U2 to open the 2023 Tribeca Festival
Courtesy of Tribeca Festival

A new documentary featuring U2 is set to open the 2023 Tribeca Festival in New York City.

Kiss the Future, produced by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Sarah Anthony, follows a group of underground musicians and creatives during the siege of Sarajevo, which lasted from April 1992 to February 1996. The doc includes footage of U2’s memorable 1997 concert at Koševo Stadium celebrating the country’s liberation, along with interviews with Bono, the Edge and Adam Clayton.

“Ben and I are proud of this film and are honored that it has been selected to open the Tribeca Festival,” Damon shares. “We are grateful to the people of Sarajevo and to U2 for giving us the opportunity to help tell this special story.”

Bono adds, “We know U2’s marquee is helpful in getting the lives of these local heroes to a wider audience, but even at my most puffed up I couldn’t have imagined our tiny role being given so much care, attention, and screen time by (director) Nenad Cicin-Sain.”

He notes, “If defiance is the essence of romance, then the people of Sarajevo are the most romantic figures. Viva Sarajevo!”

Kiss the Future will get its North American premiere on the festival’s opening night, June 7, at the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center.

This year’s Tribeca Festival has a lot of music-related documentaries in the lineup, including the new Carlos Santana doc, Carlos, with the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer set to perform at its June 17 opening at the Beacon Theatre.

Tickets for the Tribeca Festival, which runs from June 7 to 19, go on sale May 2 at tribecafilm.com.

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