What the Constitution Means to Me

When she was a teenager, Heidi Schreck paid for college by competing in Constitutional debate contests, and this film reworks that oddball history into a performance that mixes memoir, argument, and standup. Schreck brings her younger self back onstage to tell stories about four generations of women in her family, using courtroom-style speeches, personal anecdotes, and sharp humor to show how the Constitution has shaped their lives. The piece moves between past and present, alternating moments of youthful ambition with adult reflection, and it keeps the focus on identity, power, and the messy ways law and family intersect, without giving away any late surprises.

Released in 2020 and directed by Marielle Heller, the film adapts Heidi Schreck's acclaimed stage play, preserving the play's hybrid of testimony and theatricality while translating it for the screen and respectfully keeping Schreck at the center.

The work has resonated beyond theaters, prompting conversations about how national documents affect private life and how personal history can illuminate civic questions. Its mix of lecture and memoir inspired other storytellers to try similar hybrid forms, and it became a reference point in discussions about citizenship, gender, and family stories.

Critics generally responded well, reflected in a vote average of 7.5 out of 10 from viewers, who praised the film's humor and thoughtful interrogation of civic identity. Themes include the legacy of legal texts, intergenerational relationships, and the ways trauma and resilience travel through families. Schreck's performance keeps the tone approachable, shifting from sharp argument to intimate recollection, so viewers leave thinking about law and life in new, sometimes uncomfortable ways.