Niki Caro - Career

Career

Caro graduated with a BFA from the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland in 1988, and received an MFA from Swinburne University of Technology.

Caro first found interest in working with metal sculptures, but later changed in it to film. Caro taught was self taught in film through only reading narrative film books. She started out with writing and once she was done writing a script, her mother typed it up for her at work.

Her first experience with a professional production company was when she wrote and directed for the television series, Another Country. She did not have any experience in directing, but it felt it was instinctual once she started working with the actors.

Her first film, Memory and Desire, was chosen for the New Zealand Prestigious Critics week in 1998. In 1999 the movie was voted best new film at the New Zealand Film Awards.

Caro went on to write and direct Whale Rider, which is about a Māori girl that has to stand up against the other men and her father in the tribe to show she can be as much of a leader as the boys who were trained to be leaders from birth. Caro argues that Whale Rider is more about leadership than sexism because the Māori are also profoundly matriarchal. Caro says there is a Māori saying that "women lead from behind," even though in their culture, knowledge and lineage are passed down through the males and not the woman.

With the success of Whale Rider under her belt, Caro was chosen to direct her first Hollywood film, North Country (2005), starring Charlize Theron. It was later nominated for Best Actress for lead and supporting role at the Oscars and also was nominated for a Golden Globe.

After doing North Country, Caro went back to New Zealand to write and direct the feature film The Vintner's Luck (2009) otherwise known as A Heavenly Vintage, that is about a pheasant winemaker who sets out to make the perfect vintage wine. Quite the change from her previous two films that centered around a female protagonist against all odds.