Ann Arbor-born Rachel Dengiz recently wrapped Trouble, a film starring Anjelica Huston, Bill Pullman, and David Morse. Dengiz was lead producer on the film, which she anticipates will open at festivals next winter and spring, with a wider release after that.

Trouble tells the story of a woman and her estranged brother who returns to claim a stake in land he sold her thirty years earlier. When she tries to drive him from the property, the entire town gets involved in the dispute. “It’s also a love story between the brother’s best friend and Anjelica,” says Dengiz of the screenplay by Theresa Rebeck. Perhaps best known as creator/writer of the TV musical series Smash, Rebeck also directed Trouble.

Dengiz previously produced Poor Behavior, a film based on Rebeck’s play of the same name. “We worked really well together and decided to work on her next feature,” Dengiz recalls.

The daughter of social worker Lisa Dengiz and physician Alan Dengiz, she planned to take pre-med classes when she entered U-M in 1995 but quickly switched to film. Dengiz appeared in Burns Park Players and Tappan Middle School shows growing up.

After college, she interned with independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, then produced his company’s Emmy-nominated web series for AOL, Park Bench with Steve Buscemi.

Dengiz has also worked on several documentaries, including co-producing the PBS Emmy-winning Medora, about a long-losing high school basketball team in rural Indiana. (Two other former Ann Arborites, Andrew Cohn and Davy Rothbart, co-directed.) Dengiz is currently producing another narrative feature and several documentaries–including a TV series set in Detroit.