While Rico’s mother is busy working her fingers to the bone to make ends meet with two kids at home, he’s having a pretty carefree summer, flirting with girls and selling bootleg cocktails, which he mixes up at home and sips liberally himself, at Orchard Beach, a public bathing spot in the Bronx. The sobering reality of near-adult existence rears its head when he gets 16-year-old Destiny pregnant. Though Rico goes all out to try to be the father that he never had, he keeps falling back into old patterns.

Director Vargas has devoted his first feature film to the Bronx and the tight-knit Dominican-American community of his own youth and adolescence. With humour and unfailing authenticity, he tells a story of growing up and the challenges of life – with an ensemble cast drawn straight from the streets.

Joel Alfonso Vargas grew up partly in the Bronx and works as a director, screenwriter, producer and editor. His early encounter with the culture of his Dominican-American community and his love of hip-hop led him to filmmaking – first as a self-taught artist, then as a committed indie artist with small crews, street castings and semi-improvised dialogues. He is a fellow of the Tribeca Film Institute All Access and WarnerMedia Our Local Is Global program and winner of the Locarno Pardi di Domani Best Direction Award. MAD BILLS TO PAY is his feature-film debut.

Filmography (selection): 2013 GLASS, 2017 NUBE, 2020 TARGET IS HIRING, 2024 SHADOW (all short films), 2025 MAD BILLS TO PAY

Awards (selection): NEXT Special Jury Award (Sundance Film Festival, USA 2025)