HEAD OF THE LITERARY DEPARTMENT OF A. KHANZHONKOV'S FILM STUDIO MARIA KALLASH-GARRIS AND THE MOSCOW ART THEATRE
The article examines the career of journalist and literary critic Maria Kallash-Garris (18861955) as a screenwriter and head of the Literary Department at the "A. Khanzhonkov and Co" film company in 1913-14. The key point in her collaboration with filmmakers is the mediation between Khanzhonkov's studio and the artists of the Moscow Art Theatre. After an unsuccessful attempt to secure Olga Knipper-Chekhova's agreement to appear on screen in 1913, the following year Kallash managed to organize the making of a newsreel with the participation of Moscow Art Theatre actors at several estates, associated with the life of Aleksandr Pushkin. The resulting film was not released, but the role of Kallash in its creation, as well as her participation in such 1913 screen adaptations by Khanzhonkov's studio as The Precipice ("Obryv") by Ivan Goncharov, allows Kallash to be included not only among the first Russians women screenwriters, but also among the first Russian female film directors, along with Elizaveta Thiemann, Olga Preobrazhenskaya and Olga Rakhmanova. The article extencively quotes from the correspondence between Kallash and Knipper-Chekhova, which makes it possible to illuminate in detail the work of Kallash in early Russian film industry and brings new information about Aleksandr Khanzhonkov's film company and its owners to the attention of film scholars.