Ternura: Rachel McDonald's six dancers, one-hour shoot

Rachel McDonald describes Ternura as a distilled, live collaboration: the director says the film was made with "six dancers" and that the dance was "captured in a single hour." The result is a black‑and‑white short that refuses spoken narrative and makes its case through bodies and timing.

Choreographer Paulina Pulido supplied a shared movement language; McDonald worked the camera in real time, guiding a Steadicam operator on headset rather than relying on a shot list. That live framing kept the film immediate and tight: choices were made in the moment and preserved on camera as they happened.

McDonald frames tenderness as a political posture, building toward an unmasking that leaves faces exposed and in view. The film’s economy—both in performers and in schedule—is the point. It asks whether an hour and a compact ensemble can carry sustained political feeling; in Ternura, McDonald treats constraint as method.

Figures checked 17 Sep 2026.