CIFF Shorts are free and open to the public thanks to support from The First. We captured some quick clips and Q & As with the filmmakers after the screening of their films as the audience asked them questions.

The first short film to kick off CIFF’s Short program was an eye opener. CONSTRAINTS, directed by Eric Gulliver, is the story of a former nude model whose portrait is used to explore notions of exploitation vs. empowerment. While visualizing the tenuous line between "art" and "pornography," the film extrapolates the details of the model's former lifestyle: why it started, what happened at shoots, and why it ultimately wasn't for her. Through aesthetic mystery and underlying tension, the documentary illuminates certain paradoxes of representation - the difference between intent and viewership. Told through the words of a former model this tale of personal regret is made even more urgent because "what goes on the Internet, stays there forever.”

While the film never showed the model’s face or full body, archival footage of women in bondage told much of the visual story.

Audience question: How did you come to know this young woman and how did you get to the point where she allowed you to tell her story?

Gulliver: She was a friend of mine and it was a big challenge not to show her face during the shoot. I also didn’t want to engage in the photo shoot [in which the model is posing nude for a photographer]; I just wanted to hint at it. Just give a glimpse of skin. The actual situation in the film [Japanese bondage] I put in was only one of a couple of situations she described. There are actually events that take place like this and I was hoping to go and shoot them for the film, but I just wanted to get the idea of people getting tied up. What you’re seeing is Library of Congress stock footage; they have some really crazy stuff in there.

To see the trailer for CONSTRAINTS click here. Stay tuned for more Short Bits coming to you from the 2013 CIFF conference.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com