See the Debut Episode of Michael Carter and Elise Tyler's True Love Series

In just a little over a week we'll be celebrating Valentine's Day — or maybe grousing about it, as the holiday has become a bit controversial. While there are some legitimate questions to ask about the effect of commercialism on something as deeply personal as love, I'll absolutely buy the argument that expressions of genuine love matter, even if they coincide with a heavily promoted shopping event.

A new series of shorts from local filmmakers Michael Carter and Elise Tyler, aptly titled True Love, explores some of the many things that phrase can mean through the eyes of three Nashville couples. All three have participated in Carter and Tyler's earlier projects, and are their neighbors and friends in The Nations (you might even recognize some of them or their families as regulars at The Stone Fox, the restaurant Tyler ran with her brother William, which closed this week).

This familiarity made it easier to develop a natural, intimate portrait of the couples' relationships and the strong bonds that hold them together. Close relationships can frequently defy expectations, so the element of magical realism that seeps in around the edges of the narrative through the visual approach (created by Tyler, production designer Bart Mangrum and cinematographer Dustin Lane) feels natural, too.

Dazed posted an interview with Carter and Tyler, along with a premiere of the first episode. It features Sarah and Bri, a young lesbian couple whose story encompasses a multitude of issues and experiences affecting LGBT couples in the South — including unconditional acceptance and rejection founded in traditional beliefs, as well as forgiveness and mutual understanding. Check out the video after the jump.