Name: Ammunition Smuggling on the Mexican Border: Incidents of the Mexican Revolution
Released: 1914

Ammunition Smuggling on the Mexican Border: Incidents of the Mexican Revolution

1914 · Mutual Film Corp (distributor) / American Film Manufacturing Company

Around the film hang fascinating questions about border politics, which I’ll touch on in an introduction before the screening. One of Eugene Buck’s motivations for making the film may have been his rough cross-examination during his kidnappers’ first trials, in October 1913, when defense attorneys cast him as a confused and unreliable witness against idealistic freedom fighters. On film he could reproduce the pursuit, the shootouts, his kidnapping, and his friend’s murder just as he had testified. Reenacting the crime on film may have been the best revenge—and a way to honor the sacrifice of Deputy Ortiz, a twenty-year police veteran and, for the era, a rare Mexican American lawman.

Confidence

100

Why this status applies

This film, also known by the shorter title 'Ammunition Smuggling on the Mexican Border', was produced in 1914 during the era of the Mexican Revolution. Under US copyright law, all works published or registered before January 1, 1928, have entered the public domain due to the expiration of their maximum copyright term (originally 28 years plus a 28-year renewal, which would have expired by 1970 at the latest). Because the film was released in 1914, it became public domain no later than 1990, even if a renewal had been properly filed. However, current US law (as updated by the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act) provides a flat expiration for all pre-1928 works. There are no registration or renewal requirements to check for a 1914 release to determine its status; the passage of time is the sole determining factor.

Why this status applies

Supporting facts