What is it like to be a colonial subject of the greatest democracy on earth?

Six thousand miles west of California, the Mariana Islands are a part of America that most Americans know nothing about: a part of America that calls into question the very core ideals of American democracy. For over sixty years, the Marianas’ indigenous Chamorro and Carolinian people have been fighting, and dying, under the stars and stripes – yet they cannot vote for the US commander-in-chief. The Marianas’ youth are dying in Iraq for America, but they have no voting representation in the legislature of their nation.

The United States is currently preparing a massive military buildup for the Marianas’ southern island of Guam. But the people of these strategically vital American islands - which have been key to America’s “defense of the free world” for over a century – today remain second-class citizens, in a nation that prides itself as the world’s beacon of democracy.

The Insular Empire is a personal story about believing in the American dream, even while being denied the rights and privileges that most Americans take for granted. Part political tragedy, part personal history, The Insular Empire follows four indigenous characters on a journey to discover how America came to control this ‘insular empire’ in the Pacific – and how the islanders have resisted, accommodated, assimilated, and survived. It is ultimately a story of loyalty and betrayal -- about a patriotic people who literally gave everything they had to the United States, and in return received a hollow promise of American freedom and democracy.

Hope Cristobal is a museum director, former Guam Senator, and creator of Guam's Commission on Decolonization. For the past thirty years she has been struggling to reconcile Guam's extreme dependence on the US military with the cultural and political survival of the Chamorro people.

Carlos Taitano, a 90-year old rebel patriot, wants to be a full-fledged American before he dies. After serving as an officer in the US Army under General MacArthur, he led a revolt that gave the Chamorro people of Guam US citizenship. Today, he craves ‘the ultimate goal of every American citizen’: US statehood for the Marianas.

Pete A. Tenorio was a young boy on Saipan when World War II ravaged his island. Devoted to all things American, as a young man he willingly sacrificed his islands’ sovereignty to make them a part of ‘the American political family.’ Today, he is still trying to get a better deal for his people - against increasing odds..

Lino Olopai worked first for the CIA and then for the Peace Corps, to help his family survive. Today he is trying to bridge the gap between his Carolinian roots and the freedoms that come with his new American identity.

The Insular Empire will create a lasting document illustrating the complex history and uncertain future of America's Mariana islands. In the process, the film will ask some difficult questions. Why are there still US citizens without a national vote? What does it mean to be American? And what does it feel like to be American, when most Americans recognize your people as neither compatriots nor equals?

The stories of the Marianas are powerful, and speak directly to us as a nation. It is time for these stories to be told.