Evidence before narrative
We build the film around what the archaeological record actually shows. Where a popular theory has no evidentiary support, we say so rather than leaving the question artificially open.
About us
We make the kind of history documentary we wanted to watch: carefully researched, plainly narrated, and honest about the difference between what is known and what is guessed.
IMF Publishing LLC is a digital media company registered in the State of Wyoming and operating from Sheridan. We produce original documentary video about ancient history and archaeology and publish it to online platforms, principally YouTube.
The company exists because the ancient world is badly served online. Serious archaeology sits behind journal paywalls in language written for other specialists, while the popular material filling search results is often speculation dressed up as discovery. We work in the space between: films that draw on the published scholarship, credit it on screen, and are still made to be watched by someone with no background in the subject at all.
Everything we release is written, narrated, edited, and published in house. We own the scripts, the voice track, and the final cut, and we license the archival material and imagery we cannot produce ourselves.
Our catalogue spans roughly forty thousand years, from Upper Paleolithic cave art to the end of Late Antiquity. Recurring subjects include the collapse of the Late Bronze Age world, the megalithic building cultures of Anatolia and the Atlantic coast, the engineering and mechanics of the classical Mediterranean, undeciphered writing systems, and the long argument over how and when people first reached the Americas.
Each film moves through the same four stages. A long-form episode typically takes four to six weeks from first reading to publication.
We read the primary excavation reports, peer-reviewed papers, and academic monographs on the subject, and build a source list before a word of script is written.
The script is drafted against that source list. Claims are attributed, dates are checked against current consensus, and disputed points are flagged as disputed.
We record narration, assemble licensed footage, photography, maps, and original motion graphics, and cut the film in house.
The finished episode is published to our channel with on-screen citations and a written source list in the description, then supported with short-form cutdowns.
Ancient history attracts a great deal of invented nonsense. These are the rules we hold ourselves to, and they are the reason brands are willing to attach their name to our work.
We build the film around what the archaeological record actually shows. Where a popular theory has no evidentiary support, we say so rather than leaving the question artificially open.
Reconstruction and informed inference are part of the discipline, and we use them. When we do, the audience is told plainly that they are hearing an interpretation.
Every episode carries its bibliography in the description. Viewers can go and check the underlying scholarship for themselves.
When we get something wrong, we issue a pinned correction and amend the episode notes rather than quietly removing the video.
IMF Publishing LLC earns revenue from advertising paid by Google through the YouTube Partner Program, from sponsorship agreements with advertisers.
We accept a limited number of sponsors and read every product before we agree to represent it. For rates, audience figures, and our media kit, write to contact@imfpublishingllc.com or see the contact page.