HOW DARE THE ANGEL SING – She dies at the Stake but inspires a composer

Directed & Produced by: Fiona McDougall

Stage:
- Production
Location:
- Germany
Updated: February 3, 2026
Project Type:
- Feature,
- Short
Project Style:
- Archival ,
- Narrative/Doc Mix
Theme Subject:

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

This 3 min. work sample includes interviews with the key creators of the opera in Germany, scenes from the opera performance, the composer’s Bay Area descendants reflecting and visiting Germany, news footage, and a sample of animation (Generative AI) to envision historical reenactments by the two main protagonists (in the 1600s and 1930s) and a fictional spirit character, for storytelling purposes.

Note: The use of public domain imagery, current news clips, historical and animated images is for the purpose of this application and not for theatrical, community screenings.
This 17 min. work sample demonstrates the access and research to date, and a suggested style and tone. Specifically it shows:

• Interviews and B-roll we shot in Germany in 2023 of key people responsible for staging the opera: the conductor, director, and dramaturg at Theater Magdeburg
• Scenes from the opera performance as both our B-roll and the Theater’s own footage
• Our B roll of behind the scenes production of the opera
• Original footage of geographic locations: Eugen’s stolperstein, Berlin and the Weißensee Cemetery
• Stock footage geographic locations: San Francisco, Sobibor, extermination camp, Poland
• Representation of the fictional spirit character of Grete Minde as a narrative observer for storytelling purposes
• Current news clips of anti-immigrant, white power and antisemitic rallies
• Sample animation (Generative AI) to envision historical reenactments and geographic locations of the two protagonists. Why? There is no documentation of Grete Minde in the 1600s and only 3 photos that we have been able to source to date of Eugen Engel in the 1930s. The animation is used to show how these historical reenactments could go and as a cost saving device. We are open to further creative direction for development of the story
• We hear also some of Eugen’s music from the opera.

Note: The use of public domain imagery, current news clips, historical and animated images is for the purpose of this application and not for theatrical, community screenings.
Link to Pitch Deck
Link to Website
Link to Treatment/Outline

Synopsis

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“How Dare the Angel Sing” is a documentary drama which shows the heart-rending but uplifting triumph of art over bigotry. A lost opera about a 1600s woman, composed in 1930s Berlin, discovered later in San Francisco and premiered in Germany in 2022, intertwines two tragic fates: the woman who was executed by misogynists and the Jewish composer murdered by the Nazis.

After the woman, Grete Minde, dies, her Sprit lives on defiantly through time to reveal the composer Eugen Engel's story and bring us to the contemporary artists who stage the opera.

These artists, like Grete’s Spirit, come to realize the amazing power of art–this opera–to rise above mass hatred and the “othering” of disenfranchised communities today.

Grete Minde is an impoverished, independent woman, born of a foreign mother in Tangermünde, Germany. She is robbed of her inheritance, blamed by townsfolk for arson, and tortured and executed at the stake. However Grete’s passionate Spirit seeks vindication through time and discovers Eugen Engel, a Jewish composer in Berlin in the 1930s, adapting her story for an opera with gorgeous original music. He composes in a period of change in the arts, politics and women’s rights. As Hitler rises to power, Eugen’s family flees Germany for the USA but he remains, seeking to have his opera performed. Eventually Eugen flees to Amsterdam where the government rounds him up and Nazis murder him in a death camp in 1943, and burn his body in the ovens.

Grete’s Spirit mourns but is amazed to see the remarkable discovery of Eugen’s lost opera in a family suitcase in San Francisco over 60 years later. It returns to Germany where 150 artists premiere the opera in 2022, in Magdeburg, near Berlin and Tangermünde, ninety years after Eugen wrote it.

The opera causes a sensation among audiences and critics because the work is newly discovered and very beautiful but also reveals how parallel are the tragic fates of Grete and Eugen. Grete’s Spirit shows us the actual opera performance in which the Grete character joins a travelling theater and plays a singing angel. Eugen Engel’s last name means “angel” in German. Both Eugen and Grete died helpless at the hands of the authorities and were consumed by fire. Both were victims of bigotry.

Meanwhile, Eugen’s surviving and elderly granddaughter, Jan and grandson, Claude, bring their family to Berlin to see where Eugen lived, marked by brass “stolpersteine” in the cobblestones, and visit a memorial in the overgrown Jewish cemetery. Jan expresses her fears about antisemitism in the USA because it is hatred towards people for who they are, not anything they have done.

Grete’s Spirit and the opera’s stage director, Olivia Fuchs, reflect on contemporary scenes of bigotry and rioting–tied to anti-immigrant, white power and antisemitic politics–hoping the opera and its remarkable story will cause people to realize our common humanity and not repeat the tragic mistakes of the past.

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Team

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".

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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/

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Friedemann Hottenbacher

Co-Director, Co-Producer

Team

Friedemann Hottenbacher

Co-Director, Co-Producer

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.

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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.

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Gregor Streiber

Co-Producer

Team

Gregor Streiber

Co-Producer

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.

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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/

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Participants

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.

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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.

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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.

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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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Style & Tone

Artistically we aim to create a layered cinematic portrait about how art transcends persecution and gives voice to the silenced. By interweaving the stories of Eugen Engel and Grete Minde across centuries, we seek to:

1. Reveal the cyclical nature of intolerance through a unique narrative structure where Grete's spirit serves as narrator, witnessing both her own persecution and Engel's parallel fate centuries later.

2. Examine how art preserves humanity in the face of

...

2. Examine how art preserves humanity in the face of dehumanization—Engel's opera becoming both memorial and resistance against forces that sought to erase him.

3. Create a visual language that connects these parallel stories through recurring motifs of fire, music, and silencing, establishing a poetic continuity between 1600s Germany and the Holocaust.

4. Challenge audiences to recognize contemporary patterns of ‘othering’ by making visible these historical connections.

5. Document the remarkable 2022-23 opera premiere as a moment of cultural reckoning and healing—where German society confronts its past through celebrating the work of a composer it once rejected.

The film employs three distinct cinematic styles that interweave:

1. Contemporary Documentary (4K):

– Theater Magdeburg performances and rehearsals

– Use of Eugen Engel’s music throughout

– Interview subjects in their environments

– Modern-day locations in Berlin and Tangermünde

– News coverage of neo-Nazi and white power rallies

2. Historical AI Reenactments, and Archival

– 1920s Berlin scenes of Engel composing and his life

– 1930s Nazi persecution sequences

– 1617 Tangermünde sequences–Nazi propaganda films

– Death camp aftermath films

– Historical Tangermünde town records and images

– Weimar Republic news footage and artwork

3. Grete’s Spirit Character:

– Appears as ethereal presence with unique lighting and camera techniques using AI

– Costume design mixing period elements across centuries

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Background

This is a German-centered story with connection to the California Bay Area since the opera score was discovered here by the composer’s granddaughter, Jan Agee in family storage, for eventual performance in Germany, some 90 years after Eugen Engel composed the opera and was subsequently murdered in a Nazi death camp. Jan, her brother Claude, and family live in the Bay Area.

The world premiere recording of Eugen Engel's opera, conducted by Anna Skryleva with the

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The world premiere recording of Eugen Engel's opera, conducted by Anna Skryleva with the Magdeburg Philharmonic, (Orfeo, released 2023) received the prestigious Opus Klassik award in 2024 for World Premiere Recording of the Year. The Opus Klassik is Germany's most prestigious classical music award, honoring outstanding artists and recordings across 30 categories.

Recent events underscore this film's urgency: the rise of antisemitism in Europe and America, with reported incidents increasing 140% in 2023 (source: Anti-Defamation League); escalating anti-immigrant violence; and growing political polarization worldwide. Through the intertwined stories of Grete Minde and Eugen Engel, our film examines how 'othering' – whether based on gender, religion, or ethnicity – leads to dehumanization, violence and tragedy for all.

The film's contemporary resonance extends beyond historical parallel. As communities worldwide grapple with conflicts around identity, belonging, and difference, Engel's recovered opera demonstrates art's power to transcend hatred. Its successful 2022-23 runs in Germany – the very nation that once rejected its Jewish composer – offer hope that society can overcome bigotry through cultural understanding, the beauty of art and music, and recognition of individuals.

The story carries particular weight given current debates about inclusion, immigration, and religious tolerance. It reveals how systemic biases, left unchallenged, can evolve into institutional violence, from 17th-century misogyny to 20th-century genocide to today's resurgent nationalism. The film underscores a pivotal lesson from the Holocaust applicable widely to society, beyond Jews: dehumanizing any person or group can descend into mass fear, hatred, murder, destruction, and tragedy for all.

KEY ELEMENTS:

• Untold historical stories

• Contemporary relevance

• Social justice themes

• Arts and cultural preservation

• Cross-cultural/cross-temporal connections

• Examination of systemic discrimination

APPROACH:

We are uniquely positioned to make this film through our familiarity with the subject-matter. Our production access encompasses three vital spheres: Artistic: Theater Magdeburg's creative team: the stage director, Olivia Fuchs, conductor, Anna Skryleva; performance footage; opera rehearsal access; Historical: Ulrike Schröder, dramaturg,Grete Minde scholar Dr. Frederike Wein, Jewish Museum Berlin archives); and Personal: Engel's Bay Area descendants, including previously unseen family archives.

Our work sample includes interviews with the key creators of the opera; scenes from the opera performance, news footage, and a few minutes of Generative AI/animation to bring to life the historical reenactments of the 2 protagonists and to give an idea of how this documentary could go and as a cost saving device. We are open to further creative direction and development of the story.

PLANNED ADDITIONAL INTERVIEWS:

- Holocaust historians specializing in Nazi cultural persecution

- Contemporary German opera critics and musicologists, and cultural experts

- Tangermünde town historian and archivist

- Anti-bias education and reconciliation experts

TARGETS:

1. Networks in Europe such as ARD, ZDF, arte, BBC, and in USA, PBS and streaming service viewers (45-65) interested in historical documentaries, contemporary politics, inspiring stories, and cultural programming. This demographic actively seeks meaningful content exploring discrimination and equality, artistic resistance, and social justice.

2. Arts enthusiasts and opera audiences (35+) drawn to the rediscovery of lost musical works and cultural preservation and rediscovery stories.

3. Students and educators in politics, the history of World War II, the Holocaust and Germany, music/opera, and gender studies programs. The film's parallel narratives of persecution offer valuable teaching material about systemic discrimination across different eras.

INTENDED IMPACT:

1. Demonstrate how "othering" and discrimination evolve from individual prejudice to systemic violence and tragedy

2. Show art's power to transcend hatred and preserve our humanity

3. Connect historical persecution to contemporary discrimination

4. Provide educational resources about lesser-known Holocaust narratives

5. Inspire discussion about diversity and inclusion in contemporary society

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Budget

This section includes information about this project.

Independent award project award production journey impact project award. Producer visual journey creative story project producer camera editing independent film journey camera impact doc screenplay.

Rights

This section includes information about this project.

Festival screenplay editing director project cinema production team impact cinema creative project award festival festival. Director story award festival independent producer visual festival visual cinema creative project narrative producer.

Stills

Our Ask

Our primary objectives are to establish relationships with industry professionals and acquire funding to complete the film. We seek to secure partnerships with co-production partners with expertise in historical documentaries that blend archival material, reenactments, contemporary interviews with contemporary performance footage. Specifically we seek a German co-scriptwriter and German Director Photography.

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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HOW DARE THE ANGEL SING – She dies at the Stake but inspires a composer

Logline

Clips

Team

Fiona McDougall

Fiona McDougall

Jordan Bogdonavage

Jordan Bogdonavage

Friedemann Hottenbacher

Friedemann Hottenbacher

Jonathan Villet

Jonathan Villet

Gregor Streiber

Gregor Streiber

Anastasia Shikina

Anastasia Shikina

Participants

EUGEN ENGEL

EUGEN ENGEL

GRETE MINDE

GRETE MINDE

GRETE'S SPIRIT

GRETE'S SPIRIT

ANNA SKRYLEVA

ANNA SKRYLEVA

OLIVIA FUCHS

OLIVIA FUCHS

ULRIKE SCHRODER

ULRIKE SCHRODER

JAN AGEE

JAN AGEE

Budget

Rights

Stills

Our Ask