The Birth Of "REAL PRAYERS ARE SAID IN GERMAN"

A Note From Ann Hagemann

In the fall of 2015 when all Cubs fans thought "this would be the year," I wrote a Facebook post about my Father and how his love of baseball, the Cubs, music, and his strong German roots got him and his sisters through some very tough times during WWII after their father took ill...

SARAH DREW

Marsella Baumann

Filmography:
Grey’s Anatomy, Cruel Summer, Radio, Mom’s Night Out

Marsella is the daughter of German immigrants, she is a hard-working mother, a traditional homemaker, but often works in the fields when her beloved Joseph needs help. When Joseph is diagnosed with TB and taken to a sanitarium, depression takes over and she withdraws from her children. Her mother, Pop'em, helps her see that even in the darkest of times we can choose to be happy.

Isabella Crovetti

Ruth Baumann

Filmography:
Disney’s Magic Camp, Vampirina, He’s all That
Instagram & TikTok: @isabellacrovetti

Age 13, Ruth is the eldest of the Baumann Children. She shares a common bond of Music with her Father Joseph and wins a spot to sing on a local radio program. When he becomes ill, she takes on the responsibilities of a 2nd Mother to her younger siblings and prays for the day when her family can once again be whole. While our story is told from all 3 Children’s point of view, it is Ruth and Billy who lead the way. 

Margie - Age 6, loves playing with their farm dog Shep, collecting chicken feathers, and spending time with her Opa Hook. Feeling lost when her Daddy becomes ill, Margie’s Grandmother, Pop’em, arranges for her to take Accordion lessons and all soon realize they have a prodigy in their midst. 

Billy - Age 10, the middle child and lover of baseball, the Chicago Cubs, and enemy of spiders. He uses baseball to cope with his Father’s illness, the Anti-German Sentiment they are victim to, and the poverty of war time farming life. 

Ann Hagemann

Pop’em

Filmography:
Chicago Fire, Jenny's Wedding, Hannah Free, Belle

German Immigrant, maternal grandmother to our children and nicknamed so as she was always "popping" German pies and cakes in the oven. She is the call to action character of our story. While she can sometimes be a "bull in a china shop", she does so to help and protect her family.

ANN HAGEMANN

Producer / Actress

Ann is a Producer/Actor/Writer and proud member of SAG-AFTRA/AEA, Women in Film and IFA Chicago, (Fiscal Sponsor of Say it in German). She makes her living in film, TV, commercials, VO’s, and theatre, most recently seen on NBC’s Chicago Fire. Ann has been the recipient of numerous grants through the Illinois Arts Council’s Arts in Education program and the National Endowment of the Arts and performed her original one-woman show From Pyramids to Video Games at elementary schools throughout the Midwest. She has shared the screen with Sharon Gless in the award-winning feature Hannah Free, with Kathryn Heigl, Grace Gummer & Alexis Bledel in Jenny’s Wedding available on Netflix and Amazon Prime; with Eddie Steeples in Farewell, Charlie; and Asylum of Fear, Fall Away, & I’m Coming Out with Dante’ Basco, all available on Amazon Prime. Additional indie credits include: Manic, Fingerprints and Bob and Edgar, the latter currently on the festival circuit. She also has many theatre credits including Eva Peron in Evita, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Mrs. Anna in The King and I, Eliza in My Fair Lady, and Catherine Holly in Suddenly Last Summer to mention a few. 

Ann worked with Stephen Ruminski on the short film Belle, the Belle Gunness story, in which she played the title role and met Angela Morris while working on the indie film Less Than 30.  She first met Joan Tankersley in 2017 at FilmCom and is proud to have these team members on board!

It is with Director Maggie Mahrt that Ann has had the longest relationship and knew that she was the kindred spirit needed to direct Say it in German. Maggie and Ann were both born and raised in Central Illinois, where our story originally took place and the location of principal photography. They’ve been friends and colleagues since 1994 when Ann cast Maggie as her “Ann with an E” in a stage production of Anne of Green Gables. Both studied Acting in College and while Ann moved forward with her career as a Producer/Actor/Writer, Maggie went on to Film school to pursue her true passion: Directing.   

Ann is also the author/composer of The Little House Story a youth musical based on the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder which is being published and will be available in late 2020. She is also in development for a new series, Riding the Orphan Train, based on true events from the Orphan Train Movement, a supervised welfare program that transported orphaned and homeless children from crowded eastern cities of the US to foster homes located largely in rural areas of the Midwest. It operated between 1854 and 1929, relocating approx. 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, abused or homeless children. 

Say it in German (Originally titled Real Prayers Are Said In German), is based on true events in Ann’s beloved Father’s childhood growing up in the Midwest during WWII as a German American.  

STEPHEN RUMINSKI

Producer

Stephen Ruminski is a Chicago-based filmmaker. Originally born in Indiana, Stephen has been interested in filmmaking and storytelling since the age of 12. He attended Tribeca Flashpoint Academy where he focused in film post-production. Stephen’s diverse skillset has led to a numerous opportunities ranging from the edit suite to on set.

In 2011, Stephen's first documentary, The Gunness Mystery, was released. It tells the true story of  infamous, female serial killer Belle Gunness. Gunness committed her crimes in La Porte, IN, Stephen's home town. The documentary has sold close to 1000 DVDs to date and has screened in Gunness' native country of Norway. In 2015, Stephen set his sights on bringing the Gunness story to the screen as a narrative. His short film Belle (starring Ann Hagemann) was filmed in La Porte. 2020 sees a rerelease of The Gunness Mystery, with new and retouched photographs. 

As an Editor and Producer, Stephen has had the chance to work on the nationally broadcast Onward series for the University of Notre Dame, and has attended the last two Olympic Games as part of the team that provides content for the venue video boards. 

Working as a UPM/Line Producer for feature films, Stephen’s credits include the award winning The Good Catholic (available on Netflix) & 2019 SXSW selection Ms. White Light, both directed by Paul Shoulberg; Monuments (available on VOD) and Christmas with Felicity directed by Jack C. Newell; and The Duel directed by Luke Spencer and Justin Matthews (currently in post). 

Most recently, Stephen has had the opportunity to work on major studio productions as a Location Coordinator. These include the Jordan Peele produced Candyman reboot, the Aaron Sorkin written and directed The Trial of the Chicago 7, the 4th season of the Emmy winning FX series Fargo, and the forthcoming Amazon series Paper Girls based on the award winning graphic novel by Brian K. Vaughn.

Maggie Mahrt

Director

Demo Reel

Maggie is a natural born director, one with a deep passion for storytelling and world building. With her unique POV, she has had the privilege to work as a freelance filmmaker for the last nine years, creating original award-winning shorts, commercials, web series and branded content. Her singular focus for 2020 is to direct her first feature film.

​Inspired by such luminaries as Chaplin (for his comedic timing genius) and Fellini (for his singular POV), Maggie began to write and direct her very own theatrical works at a young age. She "cast" her siblings and neighborhood friends in these whimsical productions, which were often melodramatic musicals, her favorite childhood genre.

​After studying acting in college, Maggie spent the next four years starring in a one-woman drama, performing the world over. She then turned to the study of iconography, painting and commissioning numerous original works. Her exposure to that ancient art form trained her eye to understand the power of one frame and the language of color.​

These artistic experiences ultimately inspired Maggie to seek her place behind the camera. So off to film school she went! And it was there that her artistic loves converged, allowing her to discover her true calling -- directing.

Chosen as one of eight women to participate in AFI's prestigious Directing Workshop for Women in 2017, Maggie created the ambitious short film UNBOUND. It was selected for numerous Academy-Award-qualifying festivals, such as LA Shorts and HollyShorts, where it won Best Director, Sci-Fi/Fantasy and an audience choice award. UNBOUND was also awarded the coveted Emerging Cinematographers Award from ICG and screened at the illustrious Camerimage International Film Festival in Poland.

​Maggie was then selected to participate in the Fox Filmmakers Lab. There she had the opportunity to pitch a short film in the world of existing FOX franchises to head studio executives. As part of the inaugural year of the Ryan Murphy HALF TV Director Program, Maggie shadowed on the show FEUD. She has recently shadowed on the show UnREAL.

Throughout all of these opportunities, Maggie has continued to get closer to her goal of directing for television and film, becoming a go-to powerhouse in the ever-growing world of long-form storytelling. She has representation at The Gersh Agency and is managed at Zero Gravity

David Bolen

Director of Photography

David Bolen is an award-winning cinematographer based out ofLos Angeles, California. He is best known for his international work on feature films, television and documentaries. David was cinematographer for the feature documentary The Drop Box (2015) which was released in over 700 theaters and became the highest grossing Fathom event of all-time. His work on Beast (2018), was in competition at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival and won the Independent Episodic Grand Jury Prize.

Outside of film, David frequently shoots music videos for artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Khalid, Miguel and David Guetta, He has also done commercial/branded spots for major brands including Disney, Adidas, Marvel, Lululemon, Target and Staples.

His feature film entitled Soni (2018) premiered at the 2018 Venice International Film Festival and was released as a Netflix Original Film worldwide. Variety praised David for his “unobtrusively bravura camerawork” on the project.

Some Kind of Heaven (2020), his latest featured produced by Darren Aronofsky, made its premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. 

Angela Morris

Writer

Angela Morris is a writer, actress, and voiceover talent. Her first feature length screenplay, Less Than 30 (in which she also plays the lead), introduced her to Ann and led to this collaboration. My Best Girl, an award winning short film that Angela co-wrote and also acts in, can be viewed on Amazon and Indieflix. Her third feature film, Sin Sick is in development. Other film/TV credits include the feature Two in the Bush: A Love Story, NBC's Chicago Fire, Darius Dawson’s “Trash," and Chris Oliva’s “Spaceman.” Angela has performed in such theatres as The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., The Goodman Theatre, and The Gift Theatre. Angela can be heard in 2017 as Cassie, Faith, and Poppet in Perception, a video game by The Deep End Games. She also works as an Adjunct at Columbia College Chicago. www.AngelaMorris.net