WATSONVILLE

Watsonville Film Festival kicks off 13th year

The Oscars may be over, but there are still opportunities to explore exciting new cinema. Not all great cinema comes from Hollywood, and some can even be seen locally, as evidence by this year’s Watsonville Film Festival, which kicks off its 13th year Thursday and continues through the weekend.

The festival commences at CineLux Green Valley Cinema with an opening night that features “The Long Valley” (about the experiences of Central and South American immigrants in the Salinas Valley), “They Call me the Cross Man” (about an artist who honors migrant deaths by placing crosses in the Sonoran Desert), “Eternidad” (about a Latinx couple trying to navigate around their differences through the afterlife) and four other films. Saturday highlights include “Recuerdos de mi Corazon” (about a girl and her brother who cheer their grandparents up with music), “Mariachi Gringo” (about harpist William Faulkner) and “Uno Y Medio Contra El Mundo” (about a Mexican immigrant making a new life on the Central Coast). Saturday will see a screening of Jon Silver’s 1989 documentary “Watsonville on Strike,” about the two-year cannery strike that transformed the city’s politics, paired with Silver’s new documentary short “Daughters of the Strike” about striker Sylvia Baltazar and the community commitment she has passed along to her daughters.

All showings will be at CineLux Green Valley, 1125 S. Green Valley Road, Watsonville. Additional events are scheduled Sunday at the 418 Project, 155 River St., Santa Cruz; and March 14 at Maya Cinemas, 153 Main St., Salinas. For tickets and information, go to 2025wff.eventive.org/schedule.

FELTON

Zoso bring Led Zeppelin tribute back to Felton

2025 is already a big year for Led Zeppelin. In February, the documentary “Becoming Led Zeppelin” was released to theaters, shining a light on the legendary rock quartet’s early years through interviews and archival footage. Their sound can also be experienced Friday at Felton Music Hall when tribute band Zoso return to the venue.

Named for the series of symbols Jimmy Page contributed to the back of the band’s technically untitled fourth album (known to fans as “Led Zeppelin IV”), Zoso were formed in 1995 and have billed themselves as “The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Tribute.” They have played more than 4,500 shows and given audiences renditions of iconic songs like “Stairway to Heaven,” “Black Dog,” “Immigrant Song” and “Kashmir.” This year, the band began by touring with Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Zakk Wylde on his Zakk Sabbath tour and are celebrating 30 years as a band. Opening will be Swordfight.

The concert is 8 p.m. Friday at Felton Music Hall, 6275 Highway 9. Doors open at 7. Tickets are $29.83. This is a 21-and-older concert. For more information, go to FeltonMusicHall.com.

SANTA CRUZ

Y&T return to Catalyst

Following a 40th anniversary concert last year to celebrate 50 years as a hard rock band, Bay Area legends Y&T will be returning to the Catalyst Club Saturday for an encore performance.Beginning as a cover band performing at venues in and around their native Oakland, Y&T — an abbreviation for “Yesterday and Today” — began their current sound in 1974 and spent their first decade touring with some of the biggest hard rock bands of the time: Queen, AC/DC, Journey, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne, ZZ Top and more, while also receiving support from local hard rock stations such as KOME and KSJO. They finally had their first mainstream rock hit in 1983 with “Mean Streak” and got regular airplay on MTV with “Summertime Girls.” They ended up being very influential on the hard rock sound of the ’80s, with fans ranging from the members of Metallica to Motley Crue, but broke up in 1991. They reformed in 2001 and have toured ever since, even becoming the subject of the 2019 Kickstarter-backed documentary “On with the Show.”

The concert is 8 p.m. Saturday at the Catalyst, 1101 Pacific Ave. Doors open at 7. Tickets range from $40.71 to $85.34. This is a 16-and-older show. For more information, go to CatalystClub.com.

Get in the swing mood with Glenn Miller Orchestra

Several of the songs that defined the ’30s and ’40s will fill the Rio Theatre auditorium Wednesday when the Glenn Miller Orchestra comes to town.

From 1938 to 1942, Miller parlayed his long career as a sideman for the likes of Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw into leading a new orchestra that scored several hits in the late ’30s and early ’40s including “In the Mood,” “Moonlight Serenade,” “Chattanooga Choo-Choo,” “A String of Pearls” and “Pennsylvania 6-5000.” It all came to an end when Miller decided to join the Army Air Forces in World War II in 1942. Two years later, Miller took a flight over the English Channel and was never seen again, and he was declared dead in absentia.

However, Miller’s music lives on through the Glenn Miller Orchestra, which was formed in 1956 and has had a rotating lineup ever since, playing the songs Miller made famous in his style. Aficionados of pre-war jazz should find plenty to enjoy hearing these timeless songs performed live.

The concert is 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave. Tickets are $45 for general admission and $59 for Gold Circle members. For more information, go to RioTheatre.com.

This week’s calendar was compiled by Nick Sestanovich.