The Taste of Negros: Director Kurt Soberano on ‘Under a Piaya Moon’
The Taste of Negros: Director Kurt Soberano on ‘Under a Piaya Moon’
Feature art by Abigail Manaluz
They say that the best way to learn about a country’s culture is through its food: an edible expression of tradition, history, and nationhood served in a vast array of tastes and flavors. Here in the Philippines, each region boasts unique food traditions, spanning centuries of perfecting and passing down recipes from generation to generation. And when we talk about Filipino food, it’s inevitable to also discuss legacy.
Such is the central theme of Under a Piaya Moon. Set in Bacolod City during the 1980s, a young baker enters a prestigious pastry competition to continue the legacy of his family’s bakery and secure its future in the cultural consciousness.
When I got on the call with director Kurt Soberano on Tuesday morning, he had just arrived in his home of Bacolod after a jam-packed weekend: Under a Piaya Moon, his debut full-length feature, premiered at the inaugural Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival, and won Best Picture, among its six other accolades. “I’m mostly exhausted… but I feel really honored,” Soberano said.
In our conversation, we talked about the logistics of directing food, (thousands of piaya and kakanin delicacies) as well as highlighting Negrense talent both on-screen—with the likes of veteran actor Joel Torre and up-and-comer Jeff Moses—and from behind the camera.
If you’re planning to catch this film on the festival’s extended run this week, fair warning: you will physically tremble before the amount of delectable and ambrosial food on display.
Under a Piaya Moon is such a cozy and heartwarming film, not to mention very mouthwatering to look at. What was the inspiration behind making this film?
My grandmother here in Bacolod, she makes really good food and as a filmmaker, I needed to make it a bit more universal in our provincial setting. Aside from what she’s already cooking, I tried to expand it more to what our province is making in terms of delicacies such as the piaya, bitso-bitso, and napoleones.
I’ve been curious ever since I saw the film: was Concurso de Calamay a real thing back in the day?
Oh, no, it’s totally fictional. I really wanted a competition setting where we can showcase all these delicacies. Concurso de Calamay was a thing our writer, Vicente Groyon, had conceptualized and which I totally loved all the way.
Let’s talk about food. Despite the wealth of our local food culture, we don’t really see it represented enough in our cinema. Can you speak on that? What was it like directing food?
It’s my first full-length, and I really wanted to integrate something that was truly Negrense, so I went with food. Little did I know [while] I was shooting halfway that I realized shooting food was really tiring. It was really technical; if you don’t shoot in time [the food] spoils. Everything was actually really heavy because of food, so I’m not sure if I’m going to shoot every again. But it took us a lot of time because we really had to cook some of the things, we had to prepare a lot of things. We shot for 19 shooting days, if it wasn’t food I think we could achieve it in less than ten. Food really takes time.
Did you prepare all of the food beforehand or during the day of filming?
We really had to prepare everything beforehand. I’m glad that we have executive producers who own piaya and kakanin factories here in Bacolod. If I could count the total number of piayas that we’ve had in the last 19 shooting days, I think there’s about two thousand: from the raw to the cooked piayas to the different flavors and styles of piayas. We really went down into that type of detail.
Besides the food, the other main character in the movie is Negros Occidental. How did you go about characterizing and bringing to life Bacolod City and the region on screen?
A long time ago my teacher, the late Peque Gallaga, always taught us that we should always focus on our culture because that is our strength. I believe that there’s no one else that is more capable of telling the story of Negros but the people from Negros itself, and that goes the same to the other provinces as well. I really wanted the story to revolve around the Negrense culture for the Negrense audience and the world to understand what it’s like to be in Negros Occidental.
How was it like assembling and working with Negrense talent for the film?
It’s very easy to work with your fellow Negrense talents because I think we all come from the same background and training. So, the workflow is that easy, [and] it’s just a matter of putting it all together given the schedule, the weather, and the unforeseen food challenges.
What were some memorable moments on set?
There was a scene wherein we had to shoot at La Carlota City, south of our province. It's a fiesta scene, there’s a big crowd, and what they have to do is enjoy and eat the food that’s there: the kakanin, the bread, and the piaya. Every take they would eat certain parts of these delicacies. We had about eight takes, and we had to refill the whole set again eight times. So you could imagine how much food we had prepared for that.
You’ve done short films in the past. How was it like transitioning from that medium and into creating a full-blown picture?
Usually before it would take us about a month for pre production, a month for the shoot, and about a month or two for post production. This was a bit challenging for me because we were given about three months to put the whole thing up; we were really pressed for time. We only had like four hours of sleep a day just to put this all together. Until now I’m still really exhausted, but I think it’s a good training ground for me to learn that, “Oh, this is how you do a full-length film, this is how you edit a full-length film.” I think it’s a learning curve for all of us.
Under a Piaya Moon won top prize at the Puregold CinePanalo Film Festival. What does it mean for a Visayan story to be able to break through in the mainstream?
I think it gives us the possibility as well as to other filmmakers that regional cinema can really make an impact towards mainstream and big platforms.
Is there going to be a proper theatrical release and get the film to other regions in the country?
Definitely, I think we will have a regional screening here in Bacolod and Iloilo because apparently there’s more than a hundred people who have been asking me if we’re going to air it here in our province. So, I think there’s a big probability regarding that, but in terms of having it a bit more nationwide, I think we’re going to find out right after March 26.
Lastly, at SINEGANG.ph we ask filmmakers to share their TAPSILOG movies: tapa = your favorite movie, sinangag = your comfort movie, and itlog = a movie recommendation.
(Tapa) My favorite film would be The Aviator by Martin Scorcese. (Sinangag) My comfort film would be The Shining by Stanley Kubrick. Kind of weird, but it helps me sleep at night. (Itlog) And the film I would recommend to other filmmakers is La La Land.
Under a Piaya Moon was screened in the inaugural CinePanalo Film Festival at Gateway Cinemas.
