From inside history's biggest empire:
Anti-imperialist media created by Abby Martin & Mike Prysner
About
Empire Files is a 501(c)(3) media non-profit, creating public-interest journalism with a focus on US foreign policy and militarism. Through the production of video reports/interviews, podcasts, articles, and feature documentary films, we aim to educate people about the reality and impact of the American Empire.
Created by Abby Martin and Mike Prysner, the show was launched in September 2015 as a weekly, 30-minute documentary news program aired to millions worldwide on TeleSUR English, Free Speech TV, The Real News Network and more. The show quickly grew to become a main resource for people interested in understanding both the history, and current actions, of US imperialism. It featured on-the-ground reporting from hotbeds like Palestine and Venezuela, disaster zones like the Amazon rainforest and Hurricane Harvey, as well as deep historical research and investigations.
The show evolved into less frequent, but more long-form interviews and documentary productions. In 2019 we released our debut feature film. Gaza Fights For Freedom was screened in sold-out theaters across the US and Canada, becoming an underground indie hit and the definitive “crash course” on Palestine. Since then, the film continues to be screened to the public on an almost weekly basis by organizers and activists worldwide.
Several Empire Files-produced podcast shows launched starting in 2021, and later a platform for articles and analysis.
While continuing to produce an array of media content, Empire Files focused much of the past couple years on a second feature film, Earth’s Greatest Enemy, about the environmental impact of the US military, due to be released in 2025.
Abby Martin
Moved by the corporate media lies surrounding the Iraq War, Abby Martin started her career as an independent journalist in 2006, founding Media Roots to cover both local and global issues. Her on-the-ground reporting in 2011 from the frontlines of Occupy Oakland, including numerous police attacks on peaceful demonstrators, propelled her to an international audience.
That year she was recruited by RT America as an anchor, and quickly given her own prime-time, live daily news show. Breaking The Set became the network’s flagship show, and a popular political opinion show watched by millions in the US and abroad.
Her work, and refusal to follow the editorial control of the network, earned her profiles in Rolling Stone and more.
Choosing to break ties with RT she left the network in 2014 to create The Empire Files. Over her career she has interviewed countless heads of state, celebrities, politicians, and academics; produced media garnering tens of millions of views; and made headlines for confrontational questioning of politicians like Antony Blinken and Nancy Pelosi.
Her uncompromising style has made her a standard-bearer of advocacy journalism, and one of the most well-known alternative media figures in the country. Abby remains committed to uplifting stories that expose and educate.
Mike Prysner
Joining the US Army mere months before Sept. 11, 2001, Mike Prysner found himself invading Iraq in March 2003. After a year occupying the country, he returned home to get involved in the struggle against the war. His testimony at the 2007 Winter Soldier hearings became an internationally-renowned denunciation of the US occupation.
He would gain prominence for organizing other Iraq veterans and leading civil disobedience against the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. His speeches and protest actions became seen by tens of millions.
All the while, Mike was producing articles, newsletters, and other media aimed at active-duty service members with an anti-war message–much of it distributed on US bases. Many readers became war resistors. This project evolved into a podcast show, Eyes Left, becoming a key resource for US troops becoming politically conscious.
As a writer and producer of The Empire Files, he has continued to advocate for a better, more peaceful world through educational media projects.
