By day, 12-year-old Joselito de la Cruz cleans car windscreens on a busy strip in Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic, to help raise money for his single mother – but at night, he dreams of being a reggaeton star called ‘Jeffrey the Nightmare’. In Dominican filmmaker Yanillys Perez’s documentary Jeffrey, we see the aspiring MC try to fulfil his dream, recording tracks in makeshift studios with his brother, selling CDs on the street, and making radio and TV appearances. Jeffrey is wise beyond his years, his introspective rhymes detailing the poverty of his environment and the reality of living under social conditions that force young people to take on adult responsibilities before they’ve even hit their teens. Jeffrey’s story – and the story of his brothers, who feature heavily in the film – is not necessarily unique to the Dominican Republic, but it does give a human face to the country’s often forgotten ‘surplus population’ that’s rarely seen in cinema. Yet it ends back where it started, with Jeffrey cleaning car windows as TV stations’ interest fizzled out, finding the next novelty to move onto.

What the film doesn’t capture is what happens next. Perez starting shooting Jeffrey in 2012, and today Joselito de la Cruz is 16 years old. He’s no longer cleaning car windows, but not because his music career took off – instead, Perez helped put him through school to ensure that he wouldn’t continue working, teaching him how to read and write while paying for a private tutor to help him catch up to the rest of the kids his age. Yet she is clear that helping one person with their education is not the same as governments addressing poverty themselves. “The hope is to open a discussion about the subject, because it is something that still happens everywhere that I think we stopped talking about,” she says over the phone.

We spoke to both Perez and Jeffrey about the film, reggaeton, and blurring the line between documentary and fiction.

Before you met Jeffrey, was there a specific story you wanted to tell with your film?

Yanillys Perez: I started the film in 2012. I did have a specific story that I wanted to do: a story about a kid that has an adult life, but they still have an imagination and a dream. I wanted to have different kids that worked on the street, and one of those kids was Jeffery. He was very charismatic – it made me want to know more about his life, so I went to his house and I met his family and he showed me around his neighborhood. And then at one point he told me his dream, and that's when I realised this is a kid (who had what I’d been looking for). He then told me he did reggaeton and dembow. At the beginning, I didn’t believe him – so I asked him and he started singing ‘Los tres brazos’, the song you hear in the film. I then said, ‘Okay – I want to make a documentary.’ I explained that I’d film him every day, to see if he could make the dream of becoming a reggaeton singer.

At the beginning, we didn’t know exactly what was going to happen with his dream. I guess that’s why it took me four years to finish the film – I was waiting for something to happen, something bigger maybe. I thought it would be easier for him at the beginning for him to go to TV channels and on the radio. But as you see in the film, he goes later in the story, and this is because his life is very difficult. For him, the priority is to go to work and try to survive, because whatever he brings home is going to be used for eating and paying for the house.

“What I got from Jeffrey’s story is that TV and radio are always looking for content... but they don’t really care. They just want to be entertained” – Yanillys Perez

Did closely following Jeffrey’s life challenge your expectations of what sort of film you wanted to make?

Yanillys Perez: I think the main thing for me was accepting that his reality was bigger than the dream he had. I remember I would go to his house and we would have an idea to do certain things with the music and it was very exciting – but then I would arrive there and there was always something wrong. For example, his older brother’s girlfriend was pregnant, so there was a problem there sometimes. Or sometimes (Jeffrey’s absent) father came by. It was just always dramatic (laughs). There was never really any peace. It was interesting, because as a kid I always had a very different life to him. I expected something to change for him, but there was always a problem. The film ends up in his reality (rather than his dream), unfortunately.

Jeffrey, why were you interested in being featured in the documentary?

Jeffrey: Yanillys told me she wanted to do a film, to follow me and film my everyday life. So I said yes – because why not? (laughs)

The film captures how much reggaeton is a part of life in Jeffrey’s neighborhood. Is music seen just as entertainment or do a lot of people think it could be a route out of poverty?

Yanillys Perez: Both. It’s a way out and it’s also for entertainment, because everyone dances to reggaeton – it’s something people want to hear everywhere. And it’s also a way out, because there have been stories where a person comes from a poor neighborhood and they’ve become famous. You have people who become famous and they’re on all the channels and on the radio and doing concerts – and then they just disappear afterwards. So it’s like social media, where we see viral videos. Suddenly they’re famous, and then they disappear after a moment because there are so many other things going on. It was interesting for me to observe that, to see what happens to those people and to see why that happens to people. I think what I got from Jeffrey’s story is that TV and radio are always looking for content, and they open the doors to those people, but they don’t really care. They just want to be entertained, and that’s it. There is a good point to it, because these kids have a dream and these shows offer them hope that they can achieve (those dreams), but the negative side is that adults are used to seeing that (happen), and the government doesn’t do anything about the kids on the street.

“The main thing for me was accepting that (Jeffrey’s) reality was bigger than the dream he had” – Yanillys Perez

Jeffrey, what are your earliest memories of reggaeton?

Jeffrey: Well, I’ve heard reggaeton since I was small, a long, long time ago. I remember I was with my brother Junior and we saw some kids dancing on a kiosk. I said, ‘Junior, let’s go, let’s dance.’ I started dancing in the kiosks, and sometimes I won a cola for dancing like that (laughs). I remember I started loving reggaeton and dembow by dancing first. Then I created a song with my brother Jeyson. It was actually all done with the help of my brother.

I know you’re now attending school. Are you still making music?

Jeffrey: My goal is to learn; this is now my dream. I want to read and write and learn more things. Sometimes when I’ve finished my homework I improvise a few words and sometimes write them, but less than before because I’m focused on learning now. I’m happy because this is very important – now I know things I didn’t before.

Has going to school changed your approach to writing lyrics?

Jeffrey: Yes – now I can write them by myself. I’ll do that later when I’m better writing, because I’m still learning.

Yanillys, no one at the TV stations seemed surprised that Jeffrey was so young yet working cleaning windows. Were you surprised by their indifference?

Yanillys Perez: Yes, definitely. Everywhere we went, at the end I’d have people asking for his music – they want to buy it and they ask if the music is published. They also are keen to know what Jeffrey is doing, so they wanted to know his life, and they were impressed to know he worked the streets. But then they forget afterwards.

You’ve helped Jeffrey go to school, but do you worry that helping one person isn’t a substitute for systemic change?

Yanillys Perez: The hope is to open a discussion about this subject, because it is something that still happens everywhere that I think we stopped talking about. A film can reopen that discussion. I hope the film will send the message out, and whilst the film is traveling around, hopefully small things will change. Jeffrey is going to school, and he’s also taking personal, individual classes (with a private tutor) every day because he’s older than his classmates – he didn’t know how to write and read, and as he’s now a teenager, to put him in the first grade (would be) very difficult. He really has made a lot of progress and he’s really enthusiastic right now. I’m very happy that he’s learning to write, read, and do the basic things. I hope he can change his future so he doesn’t go to clean windows on the street.

“My goal is to learn; this is now my dream. I want to read and write and learn more things” – Jeffrey

The film blurs documentary and fiction, with staged shots and a some poetic, pre-written monologues from Jeffrey. Do you feel that a documentary limits what sort of story you can tell?

Yanillys Perez: This is my first documentary, (so) I allowed myself to go and do whatever I felt was good for the story. I didn't have any concepts, I was just there trying to portray Jeffrey’s life. My point of view is that a documentary is still a film, because there’s still a camera there, the same as when you do fiction. Today, the technology is so advanced and the camera is so small that it’s easy to play around, whereas before years ago for this sort of thing you’d have to have to have a huge crew to make the film pass from documentary to fiction. I gave myself freedom. I think the film is whatever the people think it is. Some people see it as a documentary and they come to me talking about that, whereas others see it more as a fictional film and I accept that. My next project is fiction, and I’m planning (for it) to be as free as the documentary, using unknown actors. This line between documentary and fiction is something I keep in mind for my way of doing a film.

Jeffrey, is music still your dream, or have your goals changed since Yanillys finished filming?

Jeffrey: My dream has always been to be famous and represent my country. I’ll continue learning, and (also) I think what I want now is to continue doing music, because I like singing and dancing. And also film – maybe acting or learning something else, because I like the cameras.