Early career Caro first found interest in working with metal
sculptures, but later turned her interests toward film. She did not receive any formal training in the field, but instead began by reading narrative film books and writing rough drafts for scripts. Caro's mother would type her handwritten drafts after she finished writing each one. Caro's work also includes short films, an award-nominated episode of Kiwi TV series ''
Jackson's Wharf'', and a number of music videos — including an award-winning interpretation of
Straitjacket Fits single "Bad Note for a Heart" which was later judged Best Music Video at the 1990
New Zealand Music Awards. Her focus then turned into TV dramas after producer Owen Hughes invited her to contribute to a trilogy of half-hour TV dramas in 1992.
The Summer the Queen Came, which was contributed by Caro, earned three nominations at the 1994
NZ Film and Television Awards. Notably, Caro's other works:
Sure To Rise and
Lemming Aid were selected to compete at the
Cannes Film Festival in France. Caro's earlier works were intentionally depicting women's search for life goals, relationships, and desires. Her acclaimed drama
Plain Tastes was about a middle-class woman searching for the ultimate happiness and love and was nominated for "Best Television Drama" and "Best Writer" at the 1996
NZ Film and Television Awards. Along with her productions of television dramas, she has also made documentaries, including her short film
Old Bastards (1994) and
Footage (1996), "that seemed at times to have been infected by fiction."
Memory & Desire Caro's first feature film,
Memory & Desire, was meant to be a showcase of New Zealand's culture and lifestyle (aligning with the start of the 100% Pure New Zealand tourism campaign by the New Zealand tourism section of the government), but it fell short; seeing disappointing results at the box office and mixed international reviews. This was especially true in
Japan, where the film was deemed to have not captured the essence of Japanese culture, despite its attempts to evoke money and consult from possible Japanese investors. The film is meant to use landscapes to juxtapose the characters and their origins. The calm and relaxed outdoor setting of New Zealand is meant to oppose the hustle and bustle of the big, busy city of
Tokyo. It works twofold because the contrast also works for the comparison of the "civilized" parts of New Zealand against the wild outdoors, showing off the two different sections of the country in an effort to advertise to multiple groups of people considering visiting the country. The tourism board looked to use landscapes as the most enticing factor in a tourist's eyes, along with people, adventure and culture. In 1999 the film was voted best new film at the
New Zealand Film Awards.
Whale Rider Caro went on to write and direct
Whale Rider, which is about a
Māori girl that has to stand up against her grandfather and the other men in the tribe to show she can be as much of a leader as the boys who were being trained to be leaders. This film is the reproduction of the book
Whale Rider, while according to the author
Witi Ihimaera, this book is the one "that the Māori community accepts best, and a response to the
Katherine Mansfield centenary celebrations which rewrites her stories from a Māori perspective." However, in order to strengthen her idea on women development and bringing out women's position in the society, Caro intelligently modified this retelling of a Maori legend. 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". She directed thirteen-year-old
Keisha Castle-Hughes to a performance nominated for an
Oscar for Best Actress. The film had a budget of $2 million,
Subsequent projects After doing
North Country, Caro went back to New Zealand to write and direct the feature film ''
The Vintner's Luck (2009), which is about a peasant winemaker who sets out to make the perfect vintage wine. The film reunited her with her Whale Rider'' star
Keisha Castle-Hughes. Caro directed
McFarland, USA starring
Kevin Costner. It was released in February 2015 and has received a critical success. Caro will also be writing and directing the biographical film
Callas, about the famous opera singer
Maria Callas and her relationship with billionaire
Aristotle Onassis. In 2013, Caro planned to direct the film adaptation of ''
The Zookeeper's Wife'', based on
Diane Ackerman's non-fiction book. It was released in 2017 and received generally mixed to positive reviews. In an interview with FF2 Media, Caro states that "female sexuality from a female's point of view is rather under-explored in cinema" and so felt it necessary to include such a perspective in her film. ''The Zookeeper's Wife'' recounts the true story of the couple, Jan and Antonina Żabiński, who secretly sheltered Jews during the German invasion of Poland from 1939 to 1945 on their premises of the Warsaw Zoo. The original composition of this writing piece was imbued with female's energetic contributions, mainly created by the female author, Diane Ackerman, and other female artists. Furthermore, with a script by "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" scribe Angela Workman, Caro tended to bring out female's significant position and fill the gender gap even further. "Along with Caro, Workman and Ackerman, "''The Zookeeper's Wife''" features a slew of female producers (Diane Levin, Kim Zubick and Katie McNeill), a female camera operator (Rachael Levine), a female stunt coordinator (Antje "Angie" Rau), a female production designer (Suzie Davies), a female set decorator (Charlotte Watts) and that's just the start." Caro claimed that she didn't meant to create a "big conspiracy of women", but only hired all best people assigning to different roles in the production of ''The Zookeeper's Wife'', while they intuitively are best fits for the various positions. In 2016, Marvel has decided to hire women filmmaker to direct the Super Hero movie
Captain Marvel, while Caro was one of the contenders with
Jennifer Kent. Later, she has rather been designated as directing a live action adaptation of 1998 animated hit
Mulan. In February 2017, Caro was hired to direct
Disney's
live-action adaptation of
Mulan, which was released in 2020, to generally positive reviews.
Mulan was nominated by the 46th
Saturn Award for Best Director. She is the second woman at the studio to direct a film budgeted at over $100 million, after
Ava DuVernay (2018's
A Wrinkle in Time), and the second New Zealander, after
Taika Waititi (2017's
Thor: Ragnarok). ==Personal life==