Award-winning filmmaker returns to Baguio City

Monday, February 13, 2012

A PRIDE of the University of Baguio (UB) is set to return to the City of Pines this February for an art exhibit and film showing that will spice up the coming Panagbenga Festival.

Award-winning filmmaker and environmentalist Eufemia “Minnie” Solomon Crouse brings her best works to UB, where she finished a technical course almost five decades ago.

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Crouse won The Best Documentary at the 2002 Cinemanila International Film Festival and a Special Prize for Best Committed Film Championing a Cause at the 2002 Brussels International Film Festival both for the film “The Case of Wilkie Duran Monte: Toxic Chemical Victim.”

The showcase is scheduled on February 14 and 15, 2012 inside the campus of UB, and will feature photographs and art works by Crouse. There will also be a screening of her multi-awarded documentary on the plight of former miner Wilkie Duran Monte, and the premier of her newest offering, a film on her life story entitled “The Memories of Minnie Solomon Crouse.”

Scientist turned artist

UB president JB Bautista said the whole UB is excited to welcome back one of their esteemed alumni.

“Minnie has already made the University proud with her achievement as the first woman technician of Radio Philippines Network and with her stints in NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and the University of Maryland Physics and Astronomy Department in the US. For her to excel in a totally different field—going from science to the arts—is remarkable. She is truly an inspiration not only to students of Baguio but every Filipino in general,” he said.

This isn’t Crouse’s first homecoming to UB. In 1974, she came back to donate machines, tools and manuals which she collected from different Universities to the Department of UB. However, it was only late last year that she got to revisit the school again, which in her time was called the Baguio Technical & Commercial Institute.

“I was on a personal trip last year when I thought of dropping by UB, my alma mater. President JB was kind enough to meet me and we came up with the idea of having this exhibit and film showing here. This is a dream come true for me, to be able to come back and share my life’s works in the city where I first began to dream,” she said.

The 65-year-old mother of two is a latecomer in the film industry, completing her first film at age 56. Her foray in the arts and filmmaking came after a series of challenges in her life, which prompted her to return to the Philippines after living in the United States of America for over 30 years.

Survivor and Fighter

She began a new life in Siquijor, where she is known as a staunch advocate of the arts and the environment, as well as the founder of the Olang Arts Park, the first and only arts park in the island.

She had been a target of harassment for her involvement in anti-mining campaigns. Some even called her the Erin Brokovich of the Philippines for her expose‘s against mining, but nothing seemed to keep her from pushing for her advocacies.

“I have gone through a lot in my life, in fact, I am due for a third hip replacement and a surgery for a brain tumor, but I’m still standing up, positive, and eager to fight. I am not fading away from this world without bringing back something to the country,” she shared.

Crouse suffered a debilitating car accident in 1988 that required her to get an artificial hip. This injury, coupled with the disintegration of her marriage, led her into depression.

To “heal” from her devastating experiences, Crouse lived independently and took on new roles as an aspiring filmmaker and a goodwill ambassador for the Department of Tourism, a work that would eventually bring her to Siquijor.

Then in 2007, before her third hip replacement, she was found to have a tumor in a sensitive part of her brain that could lead to blindness. Before this, she was also diagnosed with a rare bone disease called Avascular Necrosis or “cellular death of bone.”

These medical and personal challenges, however, only made her stronger and more urgent in fulfilling her goals. In fact, she also volunteered to become a subject for experimentation on a study about joints by a group of doctors at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

Through her exhibit and film showing, dubbed “Beyond My Dreams: The Life and Vision of Minnie Solomon Crouse,” she hopes to further inspire the young and old of Baguio to continue pursuing their dreams, no matter how hard life can get. She also hopes this would be the start of more projects in Baguio, as she has missed the City very much. (Contributed Article)