HOW DARE THE ANGEL SING – She dies at the Stake but inspires a composer
- Directed & Produced by: Fiona McDougall
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- Updated: September 25, 2026
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Logline
HOW DARE THE ANGEL SING – She dies at the stake but inspires a composer blends the haunting story of an unjustly executed woman with that of a Jewish composer murdered by the Nazis—culminating in the emotional premiere of his opera in Magdeburg nearly 90 years later. It’s a deeply moving convergence of Holocaust history, women’s narratives, and the transformative power of art.
Clips
Team
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Fiona McDougall
Director & Producer
Team
Fiona McDougall
Director & Producer
Fiona is an experienced video producer immersed in the genre of storytelling from concept through to finished media: documentaries, TV spots and PSAs. At OneWorld Communications, she produces video for online, broadcast and has developed multimedia campaigns in Spanish, Mandarin among other languages for government and non-profit agencies. Fiona has created media for clients such as the US Department Veterans Affairs, American Red Cross, Department of Agriculture among others. She co-directed, produced, story-developed, and shot the interviews for the work sample, How Dare the Angel Sing. She produced and directed the documentary, Finding Snow White (2020), an official selection in the Sonoma International Film Festival among others. For the documentary But I Love the Zine (2019) documentary, she was director, producer and did all the primary filming. It was broadcast on PBS/KQED-TV and appeared in many film festivals. She also produced and shot, Wrestling the Angel (2024). Many of her video productions have won Addy, Telly and other awards. Fiona has also been an international photojournalist working in Italy and Africa and contributing to The New York Times who nominated her for a Pulitzer Prize. "I discovered the story about the discovery of an opera score in a suitcase in a San Francisco attic in our local newspaper, and reflected on the idea of art surviving bigotry, mass fear and hatred. The more research and interviews we did, the more we became increasingly convinced that this story is both compelling for Jewish and non-Jewish audiences like myself". -
Jordan Bogdonavage
Executive Producer
Team
Jordan Bogdonavage
Executive Producer
My family (the Malkin's and Lichtenstein's) are Russian Jews who originally came from Poland and what is now Belarus. They fled persecution during the anti-Jewish pogroms in 1906, scattering to England, South America, Australia, with my direct family landing in the United States. Some fled to Germany and western Europe, but fled after WWI. My ancestors were all artisans, potters and painters, with Roy Lichtenstein being a distant cousin.I resonate with the struggles of the protagonists in this story.I am a two-time Emmy Award winning producer who has shepherded film and television productions in Los Angeles for the last 20 years, including the award winnning Netflix documentary film THE LION’S SHARE, RIGHT TO OFFEND: THE BLACK COMEDY REVOLUTION, MAFIA SPIES, and LOLLA: THE STORY OF LOLLAPALOOZA for Paramount+ which screened at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1956219/ -
Friedemann Hottenbacher
Co-Director, Co-Producer in Germany
Team
Friedemann Hottenbacher
Co-Director, Co-Producer in Germany
Born in Nagoya, Japan, and raised in Tokyo, he graduated from the German School Tokyo in 1988 and completed a year of music training in piano and drums. From 1989 to 1996 he studied communication sciences, Japanese studies, sociology, and religious studies at the Free University of Berlin, working during this time as a freelance contributor for various TV broadcasters and on international co-productions with partners such as CBS, NHK, and the BBC. Since 2001 he has been working in Berlin as a freelance writer, director, and producer, directing numerous documentaries on music and the performing arts in collaboration with EuroArts Music International. His recent films include Daiku – 10,000 Japanese and Beethoven's Ninth (2011), Rolando Villazón’s L’elisir d’amore in the Wild West (2012), Plastic – The Real Seamonster (2013), Emil and the Bridge Divers of Mostar (2015), Acting for Freedom – The Battle of the Belarus Free Theatre (2016), The Run (2016) and Teatro Amazonas (2022). Since 2010 he has also been active as a project developer and creative producer for international coproductions at inselfilm produktion, and since 2020 he has served as co-owner, CEO, and producer of inselfilm produktion GmbH in Berlin. -
Jonathan Villet
Story Director & Writer
Team
Jonathan Villet
Story Director & Writer
I’ve found that unearthing the hidden story of another person’s life gives me crucial context to understand that person more fully. Without that context I feel adrift, dependent on intuition and could be drawn to faulty conclusions, even about family members whom I love… My grandmother, a Polish-British Jew immigrated to the USA as a young woman in the 1920s, renamed herself, married successively two non-Jews, and avoided sharing her origins. I knew her as imperious and judgmental, though occasionally hilarious and generous. But I never knew about the pain she felt necessary to leave behind.I am a seeker of context... The personal context and records available about Eugen Engel after the war and Holocaust are scant. But I found important clues: he was a Jew proud of Germany before it destroyed him, he desired to share his musical imagination widely, sought artistic acceptance, and he chose an outcast non-Jewish woman as the subject for his life’s main work. To imagine some of his story and the story of Grete who was so central to his efforts, I believe, gives crucial context for his artistic life which was creative, tragic but posthumously triumphant. I am honored to add this project to my career as a writer and editor of documentary and “poetic documentary” films WRESTLING THE ANGEL, FINDING SNOW WHITE, and I LOVE THE ZINE, and creating media and communications for the United Nations mainly in Africa with local people. -
Gregor Streiber
Co-Producer in Germany
Team
Gregor Streiber
Co-Producer in Germany
Born in Berlin in 1973. Started his career in media business as a trainee in Film- and TV production in 1993. While studying law he kept working as a freelance producer for another eight years before starting his own company. Since 2001 Gregor Streiber produced more than 400 programs for German and international broadcasters, e.g. ZDF, arte, WDR, BBC, HBO Europe, NHK, IKON, 3sat, from magazine reports, feature documentaries as well as award winning creative documentaries.He is the CEO of werwiewas medienproduktion and inselfilm produktion. Besides his activities as a producer he has directed several documentaries himself dealing with topics of science, technology and society. Gregor Streiber is regularly invited to panels, pitching forums and documentary workshops. -
Anastasia Shikina
Archival Producer
Team
Anastasia Shikina
Archival Producer
Anastasia Shikina is a documentary filmmaker and creative producer based in Berlin, Germany. She has worked on documentary episodes focused on music and culture, including projects for the Malta International Music Festival and the Tchaikovsky Competition. In addition to commissioned work, she is developing independent projects exploring cultural themes. Her work is rooted in visual storytelling, with strong experience in international production, research, and post-production. https://anastasiiashikina.com/ -
Steve Pressman
Story Producer. Steve wrote our new treatment outline. He would come on board once funding is in place.
Team
Steve Pressman
Story Producer. Steve wrote our new treatment outline. He would come on board once funding is in place.
Dust Bowls and Jewish Souls: Another Side of Woody Guthrie (2026) was opening night at the Jewish Festival in Toronto ('26) and won Audience Award for Best Documentary at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival ('26).
Steve directed and produced 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus, which premiered on HBO in 2013 and received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Historical Programming. His next film, Holy Silence, premiered on PBS in 2020. Steve’s third film, The Levys of Monticello, won numerous awards while screening at more than 100 film festivals around the country since its release in 2022. His film, Moses Ezekiel: Portrait of a Lost Artist, screened at numerous film festivals after its release in 2024.
Participants
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EUGEN ENGEL
MUSIC LOVER, COMPOSER, MERCHANT, HUSBAND, FATHER IN 1920'S BERLIN, PROTAGONIST.
Participant
EUGEN ENGEL
MUSIC LOVER, COMPOSER, MERCHANT, HUSBAND, FATHER IN 1920'S BERLIN, PROTAGONIST.
Eugen Engel was born on September 19, 1875 in Widminnen (East Prussia, today Wydminy in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship of Poland).
Although Eugen Engel worked as a businessman all his life, his passion was music: as a listener, composer and musician friend. He would visit music stores with his daughter to listen to recordings with her there. It is not known when the young businessman began turning to music and composing. Even though Engel said in a letter in 1938: "I'm not a pianist," he must have had an impressive musical personality.
After 1914 Engels' compositional activities concentrated entirely on his opera Grete Minde. When the National Socialists came to power in 1933, public performances by the Jew Engel were unthinkable.The last years before he emigrated to the Netherlands in 1939 he spent using his good contacts in Berlin's musical life to get Grete Minde performed abroad. In addition to the exchange with Bruno Walter, correspondence with the conductor Leo Blech and the pianist Edwin Fischer has been preserved.
On March 23, 1943, he was transported in a mass transport along with 1,250 prisoners to the Sobibor extermination camp, where he was murdered three days later, on March 26, 1943, at the age of 67, most likely in the gas chamber. -
GRETE MINDE
FREE SPIRIT, LOWER CLASS WOMAN IN THE 1600S, PROTAGONIST.
Participant
GRETE MINDE
FREE SPIRIT, LOWER CLASS WOMAN IN THE 1600S, PROTAGONIST.
Grete Minde (1593 to 1619) came from a patrician family in Tangermünde. Her father was Peter von Minden, who was banished from the city for manslaughter. Nothing is known about her mother a Catholic Spaniard, which is why she was later considered an illegitimate child. After her father's death, she could not prove her family lineage and felt cheated out of her inheritance. Her attempts to claim her inheritance failed. In 1616, she married Antonius "Tönnies" Meilahn in Stendal, a vagrant with no income who had been repeatedly convicted of theft. Grete earned a meager living as a herbalist and fortune teller.
Following the devastating fire in Tangermünde on September 13, 1617, Grete was among those suspected of arson, her motive allegedly being revenge for being denied her inheritance. She was sentenced to death by burning at the stake on March 13, 1619, and executed on March 22. However, her guilt is disputed by historians. There is a statue of her in Tangermünde where a yearly festival is held in her memory. -
GRETE'S SPIRIT
Participant
GRETE'S SPIRIT
1619-PRESENT
The Spirit of Grete, a woman unjustly executed in the 1600s, grieves for Eugen. She finds joy when his opera is rediscovered and premieres 90 years later to public acclaim... as political bigotry resurges today. -
ANNA SKRYLEVA
Conductor of the opera GRETE MINDE at Magdeburg Theater, Germany.
Participant
ANNA SKRYLEVA
Conductor of the opera GRETE MINDE at Magdeburg Theater, Germany.
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OLIVIA FUCHS
Director
Participant
OLIVIA FUCHS
Director
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ULRIKE SCHRODER
DRAMATURG
Participant
ULRIKE SCHRODER
DRAMATURG
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JAN AGEE
EUGEN ENGEL'S GRANDDAUGHTER
Participant
JAN AGEE
EUGEN ENGEL'S GRANDDAUGHTER
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Friederike Wein
German Historical Consultant
Participant
Friederike Wein
German Historical Consultant
Friederike Wein is a German historian, literary scholar, and editor. She works as a research assistant for the critical Hannah Arendt Complete Edition at Freie Universität Berlin. Beyond her work in 20th-century political philosophy, she is an expert on 19th-century literature and historic legal archives. She is best known for her comprehensive historical and legal books reconstructing the 1619 arson trial of Grete Minde who inspired a novella by Theodor Fontane, during his travels through the Mark Brandenburg.
Budget
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Our Ask
Our primary objectives are to establish relationships with industry professionals and acquire funding to complete the film - either a feature length or short 45 min. documentary. We seek to secure partnerships with co-production partners with expertise in historical documentaries that blend archival material, reenactments, interviews with contemporary performance footage.
We are particularly eager to meet with documentary creatives who understand the unique audience engagement opportunities presented by a film that bridges classical music, Holocaust history, and contemporary social justice themes.
We are open to further creative direction and development of the story.
We are particularly eager to meet with documentary creatives who understand the unique audience engagement opportunities presented by a film that bridges classical music, Holocaust history, and contemporary social justice themes.
We are open to further creative direction and development of the story.
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