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| ‘D.E.B.S.,’ Angela Robinson’s first feature-length film, is like ‘Charlie’s Angels’ with a lesbian twist. It opens nationwide on March 25. She’s finishing post-production work on her second full-length feature, Walt Disney Pictures’ ‘Herbie: Fully Loaded,’ which stars Lindsay Lohan. (Photos courtesy of Screen Gems) |
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HOME > ENTERTAINMENT > FEATURE
By: SARAH KELLOGG COMMENTS
 
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producers. By the end of the week, she had a job on “The L Word.”
Working on “The L Word” might be considered a lesbian’s career climax, but for Robinson, it turned out to be another stop along the way. She worked as a staff writer for 13 weeks, helping to flesh out the show’s characters and to build the backbone of the first season’s storylines. For those who pay attention to these details, she’d most want to date the Bette Porter character played by Jennifer Beals, who like Robinson is biracial.
ROBINSON GREW UP in Palos Verdes, an upscale community near Los Angeles. Her first studio break came after the short version of “D.E.B.S.” entered the festival circuit, arriving at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2003. It was there that Sony Screen Gems snapped up the film and tapped Robinson to write and direct the full-length movie.
A year later, “D.E.B.S.” the feature was playing to rave reviews on the festival circuit, including the Reel Affirmations Film Festival here in Washington, and Robinson was working on the lot at Disney.
“From ‘Chickula: Teenage Vampire’ to the short and then subsequent feature ‘D.E.B.S.’, we have seen Angela’s talents and we always were expecting great things,” says Joe Bilancio, who oversees programming for Reel Affirmations. “We can only hope the next major production goes back to a GLBT theme so we can showcase one of our community’s finest talents.”
At some point, the handful of gay filmmakers who make it in Hollywood find themselves where Robinson is now. Gay and lesbian audiences would like her to keep telling their stories, while Hollywood has got something else in mind. She’s determined to find her own path.
“I was on some panel about what’s next for gay film,” Robinson says. “We were talking about whether it’s always going to be exclusively gay or whether gay themes or characters are an element of broader films. I think there will be some gay films, but I do think it makes sense to make us a part of the story just like everyone else.”
Robinson’s part in the story is that of confident-if-slightly bewildered creator. With an imagination borne of old-school comic books a lá “Wonder Woman” and the “Justice League” and a love for the rat-tat-tat of musicals and dance, Robinson is carving out her own special place in Hollywood, one film at a time.
“I had a big fantasy life when I was a kid,” she says. “Both my parents worked a lot so I was on my own reading and watching TV. I think of ‘D.E.B.S.’ as coming from that kind of fantasy life. It’s like ‘
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