Madeleine Carter is a filmmaker, producer, and executive. Her credits include “Live from Space,” “To Catch a Smuggler,” and “Brothers in War.” She received an Emmy nomination for the latter.

“Love & The Constitution” premieres on MSNBC February 6 at 10 p.m. ET.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

MC: The film is about my congressman, Jamie Raskin, a former Constitutional Law professor, and his experience of the Trump presidency.

During the time I was making the film, Raskin’s son, Tommy, dies by suicide, Trump incites an insurrection on January 6, 2021, and Raskin becomes Lead Impeachment Manager for Trump’s second impeachment trial.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

MC: When I began filming on July 4, 2018, I thought I was starting a one-year project about how my congressman was using his knowledge of the Constitution to save democracy from the ravages of the Trump administration. I expected that Trump would be impeached within a year and that I would follow Raskin, who is on the House Judiciary Committee, through the process. I was drawn to the story because I believed that our Constitutional democracy was under threat, and I knew that Raskin was a charismatic person on the frontlines trying to save it.

W&H: What do you want people to think about after they watch the film?

MC: If people come away from this film understanding that one person can make a difference, I will have achieved my goal.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

MC: Every aspect of the past four years of making this film was challenging. But the most challenging was working with an editor whom I didn’t know who was based in Los Angeles while I was in Washington, D.C. I had done everything by myself for three years, and I had a hard time giving up total control.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

MC: My film had zero funding for the first three years. I didn’t even try to get funding because I knew that as an unknown filmmaker I had to have something to show.

For the first time in my life I was in a position to not have to earn a living, but I also didn’t have money to spend. I borrowed camera equipment from a friend and I did every job myself. Three years later I had enough good material to edit a selects reel which an agent then used to sell the film.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

MC: I wanted to be a documentary filmmaker because I love adventure, I love learning, I love stories, and I love being behind a camera. However, I spent 17 years in a desk job at the National Geographic Channel where I got half of what I love to do — the learning and the stories — because I needed to make a steady living.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

MC: The worst professional advice I was given was by my mother, who had my best interests in mind when she told me never to learn touch typing. In her day, if a woman knew how to type, that’s what she’d be stuck doing. But, of course with the advent of computing, I’ve been hamstrung by being a hunt-and-peck typist!

The best professional advice I’ve heard is always be nice to interns because they may one day become your boss.

I want to add my own piece of learned advice: look for stories and characters in your own world: don’t hunt for the exotic.

W&H: What advice do you have for other women directors?

MC: My advice for myself — and for other women directors — is don’t expect someone to hand you career-changing opportunities. First figure out how you want to spend your days, because as Annie Dillard famously said, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” Then be willing to take risks and make your own opportunities. Sometimes needing to make a living will get in the way, but never lose sight of how you want to spend your days — and your life.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

MC: I saw Barbara Kopple’s 1976 film “Harlan County, USA” when I was in high school, and it inspires me to this very day. The film covers a Kentucky coal miners’ strike from the point of view of 180 coal miners and their wives. The film is a very personal inside look into the lives of coal mining families, and it was unusual in its time for using no narration, just the voices of the people in the film. Like me, Kopple spent four years making her film.

It was another woman-directed film, Laura Poitras’ 2014 documentary “Citizenfour,” that directly inspired me to shoot a film by myself, following one person. In her film, you see Poitras reflected in a mirror behind her camera interviewing Edward Snowden as he hides in a Hong Kong hotel room trying to avoid extradition to the U.S. for leaking classified NSA documents to the press. I saw that, and I said to myself, “If she can do that, I can do that.”

W&H: How are you adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you keeping creative, and if so, how?

MC: Covid hit when I was halfway through filming. I was just starting to edit, which is a perfect Covid job because you’re essentially alone in a room with your computer. It was sheer luck that much of what Congressman Raskin was doing during Covid was covered by the news media and C-SPAN, so I was able to fill in my own filming gaps with news archive.

W&H: The film industry has a long history of underrepresenting people of color onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — negative stereotypes. What actions do you think need to be taken to make it more inclusive?

MC: The film industry has a lot of remedial work to do in representing people of color, and women of all colors, on screen and in jobs off screen, to counteract the industry’s long history of discrimination and negative stereotypes. I support affirmative action in the industry.