She made her feature film debut in 1998 with Radiance, which was awarded the audience prizes at the Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra film festivals, and launched the career of Deborah Mailman. Since then she has directed feature films Bran Nue Dae (2009) and Jasper Jones (2017), TV drama series Redfern Now (2012-13) Mystery Road (2018), Total Control (2019) and telemovies One Night the Moon (2001), Mabo (2012) and Redfern Now: Promise Me (2015).

A highly accomplished documentary filmmaker, Rachel produced the landmark series First Australians (2009). Most recently, she wrote, directed and produced The Australian Wars (2022), another landmark 3-part documentary series, which saw her journey across the country to explore the bloody battles fought on Australian soil and the war that established the Australian nation, seeking to change the narrative of the nation.

Her films have been shown at film festivals around the world, and she has won numerous awards for her work.