[3] In the 1930s she was credited as the editor of Ivens' films including Nieuwe Gronden (1934), Misère au Borinage (1934), The Spanish Earth (1937), and The 400 Million (1939).
Bob Mastrangelo has written that these four films "earned Ivens a worldwide reputation, and solidified van Dongen's status as one of the most important editors of her generation.
The intensity of van Dongen's editing is an important factor in the film's impact, particularly in the way it contrasts the horrors of war with the beauty of the Spanish countryside.
[6] Van Dongen kept a diary during her work on Louisiana Story that she later published,[7] and that is considered an important record both of the film and of Flaherty's career.
Her 1937 film, Spain in Flames, was a compilation of Spanish Civil War newsreel footage that was narrated by John Dos Passos.