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As a regular part of their programming, the Inside Out LGBT Toronto Film Festival has a series of short films presented based on different themes. Wednesday night’s program of 6 short films was based on various types of girl-on-girl romance called Looking 4 Love. Overall the subjects tended to focus more on young/first love with everything from teen romances to hooking up online covered.

Make a Mate (USA 4 mins)
This sweet stop-motion animated film by Jennifer Jordan Day tells the very simple tale of a single girl deciding to use the Mate Maker store to create her perfect match. It has a very simple and straight forward story-telling structure but was somehow very touching and emotional.

Tech Support (USA 10 mins)
A girl calls in to her tech support person for help with her computer problems. While on the line they both discover that the other is a lesbian and then an on the phone romance ensues. It has a nice low tech gonzo style of filmmaking that focuses more on the laughs than any particular art direction. A very clever and funny film, with its tongue firmly in cheek.

Evelyn Everyone (Australia 17 mins)
This Australian film is about Evelyn who is depressed and alone on her 33rd birthday, so she decides to join the Second Life online virtual world. Online she mistakenly joins a lesbian community and discovers that she likes women. The irony wasn’t lost on me about Evelyn finding her true self in a virtual world but I felt this film went all over the place with its story-telling. The film would have worked better if the whole film took place in and around the Second Life sequence rather than going on and on after that.

Girl Talk (USA 7 mins)
The word is out in a local high school that Kelly has a new love from a big date on the weekend, but she isn’t telling her friends yet. I don’t think I am really giving anything away by saying what the gender the big date was with (and it being in a LGBT film festival it certainly was expected). It’s a cute little film, but at 7 minutes it feels way too short.

ORGANiSM: A Coming of Age Story (USA 14 mins)
This is another high school romance but with a much more edgy, realistic feel to it. Carmen is still fooling around with boys but she started a secret romance with punk girl named Jen. Jen is already a bit of an outcast with her butchy punk style, but Carmen is still very much part of the popular crowd and is having trouble being honest with herself and with Jen. The film makes interesting symbolic parallels between a woman getting her period and discovering her sexuality. With excellent cinematography and great editing, Nina Reyes Rosenberg’s film is the strongest of this collection. She is a filmmaker to watch out for.

Flotsam (USA 22 mins)
The title Flotsam means a nautical wreck, which is completely appropriate for this bleak story. This film tells the story of a sailor named Salazar who has been ordered by the military to find a missing sailor that she has had a relationship with. She is assigned a fellow female sailor named Parsons as a driver and a connection grows between the two of them during the road trip across the desert to California. The story is strangely vague and it keeps you guessing about what is really happening throughout. The film takes no shortcuts; it doesn’t explain everything but is still a very fascinating film experience that you will be thinking about after you leave the theatre.