The Maori culture is different than our culture where we're most likely to introduce ourselves by email or fax and we conduct a lot of business in an impersonal way, whereas for Maori, the only way to do it is to make the pilgrimage and sit down face-to-face and have some tea.
Niki Caro
I recognised that femininity and strength are not mutually exclusive, and I think that femininity has often been equated with weakness, but we know it's not.
As far as people getting into the industry and creative roles as writers and directors, I would say that technology is on your side, and you can tell their stories very easily.
You can start making films as a child. It's become easier to find your groove as a filmmaker, and I'm extremely interested in those voices.
Sense of place is really big for me - as a filmmaker and as an audience member, it's huge.
I think a lot of action films, and I'm just saying this as a moviegoer, the default setting on action films seems to be how could it be cooler?
I believe that the debate of 'Who should tell indigenous stories?' is very important. It's something that should be talked about. I'm totally up for that and if my work can be part of that debate, I'm thrilled.
I don't see myself as a crusading feminist filmmaker. Not at all. I have the luxury of coming from New Zealand and I've had moments in my life where being female is considered to be a tremendous advantage - emotionally, career-wise.
Personally, I have nothing to prove. But I'm tremendously curious about human nature. Female life is so incredibly underexplored in cinema, so these stories feel very exotic.
When I was starting out I was way too scared to ask real directors how to do it or ask for advice, I'm really kind of New Zealand like that.
I take particular care in authenticity and specificity when working in cultures not my own. Every aspect of the filmmaking here was meticulously researched, and not just by me but across every department.
We know, from our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, our friends, that our strength comes - female strength - comes in all kinds of forms.
You know, when you make something in live-action, you make it real. And when you are inspired by and determined to honor the original - the most original version of the 'Mulan' story - then you have to acknowledge that this is a story about a young woman who disguises herself as a man and goes to war.
I blew up the mine in 'North Country'. It was about a kilometer long. I was so nervous that I'd do it wrong that I closed my eyes when I did it and I missed the shot completely.
The amazing thing about cross-country is that they don't run indoors - I could put them in extraordinary environments. And it's kind of uniquely cinematic in that way, to be able to commit to the screen some things that people don't get to see too often.
A film like 'Whale Rider' is equally truthful, perhaps more so, to the Maori experience; Maori people respond to 'Whale Rider' because it's a world that they understand.
Martial arts are inherently both incredibly impressive and incredibly beautiful. And that's my female nature, maybe, and my instinct, to make things beautiful.
I was always stealing 40-gallon drums off the road at night, bringing them back to the workshop and cutting them up with a gas axe because I loved to weld. I would make creatures out of these old metal drums.
When I made 'Whale Rider' - of course, I'm not Maori and have no business, as a white girl, telling people how to be in this movie - I started by learning the language, as best I could.
I really value the skill and sensitivity of my collaborators, and I am really interested in - perhaps more so than if I was a male director - the hair, makeup and the textures of the fabric and the wallpaper.
With every film I've made, 'Whale Rider' included, I've had a vision that was far bigger than the budget allowed.
I'm very conscious of what I consider to be the first audience of any movie that I make. It's those people whose reactions I'm most attentive to. They're the ones who will tell me whether I've done my job or not.
Fundamentally, the way I work is exactly the same whether I'm making 'Whale Rider' or 'Mulan'. And those two stories are somewhat similar. They have interesting parallels, and it felt like I'd really come full circle, back to a story of leadership.
I'm primarily interested in examining human issues.
God knows nobody hated running more than me. Because I was writing and rewriting the script, I thought that I'm going to have to run because I'm going to have to know what it feels like to run.
I think about things like the ability to communicate a vision, strength to create an environment where the actors fell very safe and where they can maybe they can work without e protecting themselves they can really stretch. These qualities are neither male nor female.
Look what I know about directing; is it goes beyond gender. You might see some qualities that are inherently female in the great male directors.
Whale Rider' was a very authentic and specific movie about the indigenous culture from where I come. Amazingly, by the fact it was so authentic and so specific, it became really powerfully universal.
You know, what is so curious about being a director is that you never get on anybody else's set and see how they do things.
You know when you work with animals you have to do so very carefully, species by species.
As a kid I was always barefoot, always outside and as an adult I always want to be outside.
I made 'Whale Rider', I saw that to be specific and authentic is to be universal, and I've continued to work in an identical way ever since.
If you look at my body of work, which is not very big, really, it took an evolutionary leap with 'The Zookeeper's Wife'.
In all cases, I will always hire the best person for the job, and it just so happens that many of those are women.
I have a commitment to real worlds on screen. I like working in real communities. I like telling real stories.
It's a privilege to tell stories on film. It can be a great community to live a professional life. All of us that do this work should feel very grateful that we can.
I try to cast actors willing to believe in the world of the movie, who can make an emotional investment in the world we are creating.
I do commit really, really passionately. It's why I only work every five years. It's exhausting.
It's interesting - the things you remember about Chariots of Fire is the slow running on the beach and the Vangelis music.
There's so many movies, they're just like fast food you consume them and you can't even remember what you just ate. I don't want to make those kinds of movies. I want to make the slow food of movies.
The problem for me, with most movies for children, is that the filmmakers make the mistake of making it too simplistic. Where a child's world can be very complex, emotionally.
I come from a place that is very politically sophisticated and progressive. New Zealand was the first place to give women the right to vote.
I'm not at my house storyboarding, and telling them they need to move from A to B, 'Move here and then there.' Never, ever! I used to storyboard when I was much less experienced.
The New Zealand culture and nature is such that we find it very difficult to celebrate creative achievement. In order to get New Zealanders' respect you have to dominate the world like Peter Jackson has done. He is absolutely revered.
I never had a mentor. God, it would have been nice, but I just didn't. I look up to Jane Campion. And my most favorite director Lynne Ramsay.
We don't tend to break into song when we go to war.
I've had my best experience as a filmmaker with true stories about real people and real cultures.
Here's the problem: women directors are not allowed to fail.
