The award-winning festival takes place April 10-17

Gilroy High School grad and filmmaker Mattie Scariot is honored as “Woman of the Year” for her leading the Poppy Jasper International Film Festival.

By Robert Airoldi

Robert Airoldi

Hats off to Gilroy resident Mattie Scariot. She’s the 2024 Woman of the Year for state Assembly District 28. She told us she found out March 6 in an email from Assemblymember Gail Pellerin’s office she was selected for the honor.

“I was surprised. It’s really exciting,” she said. “I saw that they had put out an announcement that you can nominate for Woman of the Year, and my son (Nathan Myers) nominated me. They didn’t go into details on why they picked me.”

We know why. As the director of the Poppy Jasper International Film Festival, Scariot has worked hard during the past several years to make the South Valley a hot-spot for up-and-coming filmmakers to show off their cinematic art.

The award-winning festival takes place April 10-17 in various locations in Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Hollister and San Juan Bautista.

“The craftsmanship of the films this year is really good,” Scariot said of the local festival. “There are many excellent films from around the world. It’s a great way to bring these filmmakers to the South Valley for people who love movies to meet and learn about the art of film.”

To learn more about the festival and purchase tickets, visit www.pjiff.org.

The South Valley Civic Theater/Limelight Actors Students announced the next season’s line up at its annual members’ meeting March 11 at the Morgan Hill Community Playhouse.

The Limelight play is the farce “A Comedy of Tenors” running Aug. 23-Sept. 8.

The youth musical is the 60-minute adaption of the Pixar film “Finding Nemo, Jr.” It runs Sept 20-Oct 12.

The 1970s musical “Pippin” is the adult show, opening Nov. 15 and running until Dec. 7.

“Mean Girls,” the musical is the teen production, performing Feb. 21-March 15, 2025.

“Unnecessary Farce” is a wild and hilarious slapstick comedy that runs from April 25-May 17, 2025.

After it receives permission, SVCT will announce in June the title of an award-winning musical that will run June 21-July 13, 2025. “I promise you, it is going to be a sweet victory when we finally tell you what it is,” said SVCT Board President Kim Lynch.

She observed that most of the people at the meeting are volunteers and members.

“We cannot do this without you. We’re here to serve our community, and this is a service that nobody but us can do,” she said. “It is a service that fits people’s spirits, that opens their minds, that teaches them things that they didn’t know.”

We look forward to the 2024-2025 shows!

Katelyn Deng powerfully performed the Liszt “Concerto No. 2″ with the South Valley Symphony orchestra Saturday March 9 at the NextGen concert. As one of the two first-place winners of the annual Al Navaroli Youth Competition, her fingers danced across the piano keys with a wonderful talent, especially at the tender age of 14.

She emailed a letter to the orchestra expressing her gratitude for the opportunity.

“ I’m incredibly grateful to everyone for being so friendly and warm,” she wrote. “I was quite nervous before our first rehearsal together, but each of you quickly made me feel comfortable and at home.”

To read the full letter, visit www.morganhilllife.com/2024/03/14/katelyn-deng-letter/

Congrats, Katelyn, for your exceptional talent that impressed everyone in the audience. We look forward to hearing the other winner of the competition, Aidan Kwon, who will perform Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” at SVS’s Mother’s Day concert at Gugliemo Winery on May 12.

Morgan Hill Life’s publisher Marty Cheek participated in an innovative and entertaining career forum with the high school students of Mount Madonna School, a private school on Summit Road. The students were tasked as CSI officers to “interrogate” various people about their jobs and figure out from the answers what they did for a living.

“I’ve participated at Career Day events in the past, but this one is by far the most fun because it made learning about different jobs an exciting game,” Cheek said. “The best way to learn is to make the process of discovery a fun adventure, and Kevict Yen, the parent organizer of the forum, succeeded in making the forum fun for both students and participants.”

Cheek was impressed by the quality of the questions the students asked.

Other schools might want to try innovative learning techniques for encouraging students to learn about potential vocations, he said.