CASCARÓN Short Documentary USA 16 mins Dir. Chris Price & Casey McGarry

Cascarones ~ the tradition of breaking colorful eggs stuffed with confetti over the heads of unsuspecting victims remains a mainstay of Santa Barbara’s Fiesta, the annual five-day exaltation of California’s “Rancho period” celebrated as Old Spanish Days since 1924. Where cascarones came from, who started the ritual, as well as the people who craft them, are mysteries to most who know and love them. This film offers a brief look into the lives of three Mexican immigrant families on Santa Barbara’s eastside who help carry on the folk-art vendor and tradesman tradition of making and selling cascarones. Every year, year after year and all year long, a countless number of families — almost entirely latino and many immigrant — produce tens of thousands of cascarones for the community to enjoy. Cascarones are known to have been in Santa Barbara since the 1830s, and today prevail symbolically as a hand-crafted, unbroken cultural linkage connecting Santa Barbara to its rich and diverse colonial past.