Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo)
Joel Alfonso Vargas
United States
- 2025
Estreno nacional
In a tight knit Dominican American community in The Bronx, Rico is hustling his way through the summer, selling bootleg ‘nutcracker’ cocktails out of a beach cooler and chasing girls without a care in the world. But when his teenage girlfriend, Destiny, begins crashing at his place with his family, turning their small apartment into a stage for their messy, complicated young love, it’s only a matter of time before they’re hit with the sobering reality of growing up too fast in a city that waits for no one.
Joel Alfonso Vargas
He grew up shaped by the hip-hop culture of The Bronx which became a key inspiration for his journey into filmmaking. Initially self-taught, he experimented with short films and found his actors on Craigslist. He later studied at the University of Southern California, the University of the Arts in London and the UK’s National Film and Television School. He collaborates closely with marginalised communities to tell nuanced stories around themes of diasporic identity and social justice. He has directed the shorts ‘Nube’ (2017), ‘Target is Hiring’ (2017), ‘Shadow”’(2024) and ‘May It Go Beautifully for You, Rico’ (2024), which won the Pardi di Domani at the Locarno Festival for best director. His feature debut, ‘Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo)' has been selected at the Sundance, Berlin and Jeonju (South Korea) festivals, where it won the award for best film.
