Modern recording technology has done some pretty amazing things in recent years, but this weekend, Invermere and Kimberley residents have an opportunity to witness a family brought together again through music.

Pat and Baiba Morrow have organized a special evening to present a short (34 minute) documentary film and then a musical performance by one of the films subjects, Jamyang Yeshi In Invermere the event takes place on Saturday, January 16, 7:30 pm David Thompson High School Auditorium; tickets $10, available only at the door. Doors open at 7 pm. And in Kimberley it takes place at at Centre 64 this Sunday at 7:30 pm. Door opens at 7, admission is by donation.

Jamyang Yeshi is a singer and musician from the Amdo region of Tibet. He fled that country almost 15 years ago, living at first in India, then receiving refugee status in Canada after being invited to perform at The Banff Centre's Cultures at Risk Summit in 2005. His brother Tsundue also escaped Tibet and now lives in the United States, but the rest of the very close family remains in Tibet, and cut off from the two brothers, who are forbidden to enter the country.

The film being presented in Kimberley, is the Tara Cafe Project's Shining Spirit, a record of an amazing journey to Tibet by two filmmakers, Mark Unrau and Karen McDiarmid, who brought recordings of Jamyang in Canada. The recordings were all stored on Unrau's laptop computer. The filmmakers were accompanied by Gompo Kyab, a musician friend of Jamyang and Tsundue's who acted as musical facilitator and translator.

Unrau and McDiarmid, along with Gompo, brought a video camera and filmed over the course of three weeks, as different members of Jamyang's family — his father, two elder brothers, younger sister and nephew, as well as extended family — were recorded. The recordings were then brought back to Canada and the tracks mixed at the Banff Centre.

The result is a family reunited musically.

Jamyang sings with his father and his young sister, and the entire family sings together in Aku Pema.

McDiarmid says that the family in Tibet was very emotional to hear Jamyang's voiced on the computer, as were the filmmakers.

The Shining Spirit Project is a testament to the power of music, the resilience of the Tibetan culture, and the enduring bond of a family separated by politics and geography, she says.

The Tara Café Project promotes the cultural continuity of Tibetan music. Live performances, recordings, and film documentation involving Tibetan artists, both inside Tibet and in exile, are supported.

The Tara Café Project began in 2003, taking its name from a small cafe in Dharamsala, India, where refugees from the Amdo region of Tibet often gather to visit and play music together.

Karen McDiarmid is psychologist who works at the Banff Hospital in Emergency Services. She has a background in photograhpy, having attended the Banff School of Fine Arts with Pat Morrow, but she had never made a film before. She is, however, passionate about Tibet and bringing attention to the situation there.

She will be in Kimberley Sunday to give an introduction to the film. Jamyang will perform after the film.

For more information call, in Invermere COTR: 250-342-3210; and in Kimberley 250-427-3050.