“Mad Bills To Pay”, interview with the director Joel Alfonso Vargas

February 24, 2025

Joel Alfonso Vargas, director. " Mad Bills To Pay". A portrait of the Latino community if the Bronx through the life of a young man facing his responsibilities.

"Mad Bills To Pay", interview with the director Joel Alfonso Vargas Angelo Acerbi

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“Mad Bills To Pay” by Joel Alfonso Vargas is a realist social drama on a Latino family in the Bronx. there is a lot of personal memories in the film, as the director comes form Bronx and inevitably the neighbourhood becomes another lead character of the movie. We met with the director on the day of the film’s premiere in the Perspective programme in the Berlin International Film Festival.

The choice on casting also non professional actors to get more realistic

One of the aims of Joel Alfonso Vargas in making “Mad Bills To Pay” was the realism, in order to get that he decided to cast also on professional actors form the Bronx. Casting was very successful and the chosen people were so natural and at ease not to show their minor acting skills. The rehearsals were long and they are all perfectly integrated in the film.

A semi-documentaristic p.o.v.

The way “Mad Bills To Pay” is shot is through use of wide angles, some static wide shots from a distance, to give the audience the idea of the world the characters live in and also to open a peek in that life for an audience that sometimes feels to be in a real-life show more than in a fiction.

Plot

Rico belongs to a tight-knit Dominican-American community in the Bronx. He is hustling his way through a carefree summer, selling bootleg “nutcracker” cocktails and chasing girls on the beach. But when circumstances arise that force his girlfriend Destiny to move in with his family, the small apartment becomes the stage for their messy, complicated love life. It is only a matter of time before they must face a sobering reality: they are growing up too fast in a city that waits for no one. Writer-director Joel Alfonso Vargas turns his hometown into the heartbeat of his debut feature film. Teaming up with talent cast on the streets, he and his two leading actors deliver an authentic, slice-of-life portrait of the Bronx. With grit and humour, he paints a tender portrait of the chaos and charm of urban living as well as the ups and downs of youthful abandon when life takes an unexpected turn.

Written by: Angelo Acerbi

Guest

Joel Alfonso

Film

Mad Bills To Pay

Festival

Berlinale

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