Aleksandr Khanzhonkov
Alexander Alexeyevich Chanschonkow (Russian Александр Алексеевич Ханжонков, scientific transliteration Aleksandr Alekseevic Chanžonkov in Chanschonkowka in today's Donetsk Oblast; * 27 Julijul / August 8 1877greg, .. † September 26, 1945 in Yalta ) was a Russian entrepreneur and pioneer of Russian film industry, producer, director and screenwriter.
Biography
He was born in the village Chanschonkowka as the son of an impoverished landowner. In 1896 he graduated from the Novocherkassk Cossack Cadet School and was sergeant in privileged Donkosakenregiment in Moscow. In 1905 he finished his military career as an officer for health reasons and she received a legal compensation of 5,000 rubles. So he bought shares of the Moscow company Gaumont and Sieversen which he later took to establish on the basis of a film strip factory. In the spring of 1906 he was co-founder of Osh and E. A. Chanschonkow to hire foreign films and the production of Russian filmstrip.
On 9.jul. / December 22 1906greg. handed Chanschonkow the charter application for the company Chanschonkow & Co. at the Moscow Commercial Office. Their determination was producing and trading with filmstrip, lanterns magicae, fog images and various equipment for their production. One of the guarantors of the company was the well-known banker and member of State Council Ivan Ozerov.
Initially Chanschonkow employed only with documentaries and the hire of foreign films in Russia, but in the summer of 1907 he began with the shooting of a home strip Palotschkin i Galotschkin ( Палочкин и Галочкин ), but he did not finish.
On 20 December 1908jul. / January 2 1909greg. came the first artistic production from Chanschonkows studio on the canvas, the " Drama in the Gypsy camp near Moscow " through which the journal Cine - Phono wrote: " ... one must draw attention to the fact that these strips the first of A. Chanschonkow published drama, which was directed by his own troops, because so far, this studio produced only nature films ". At this time, several films were in the studio at the same time in work that appeared in 1909, including " Song about the Merchant Kalashnikov ", "Russian wedding of the 16th century " and " doorkeeper Wanka ". He committed to the newcomer director Vasily Goncharov and the theater troupe of people Wedenski house, which then consisted of Alexandra Goncharova, Andrei Gromov, Pyotr Tschardynin and Ivan Mosschuchin. The theme edited by Chanschonkow films was the film version of Russian classical music, folk tales and songs.
From 1910 the company Chanschonkow & Co. gave the magazine Vestnik Kinematografii ( Kinematographieanzeiger ) out; 1915 appeared the funded her journal Pegas ( Pegasus ), which focused next to the movie also theater, music, literature and modern culture.
Many important milestones in the history of Russian cinema are due Chanschonkows Studio. In 1911 with Chanschonkows and Goncharov joint production The defense of Sevastopol ( Оборона Севастополя ) the first Russian film in full length feature film in the cinemas. 1912 was Chanschonkows company with Władysław Starewiczs work The beautiful Ljukanida the world's first puppet film out. Thanks to these and other successes, Chanschonkows studio became in the 1910s the leading film production facility in the Russian Empire. Another feature of the studios were productions of scientific strips, what specifically a department was set up in the studio, also in the leading Russian scientists were working on the productions.
1923 Chanschonkow received from Russia the offer to direct the film studio Rusfilm. He took it and returned so back in the newly formed Soviet Union. The studio, however, was dissolved a short time later without having started operation. Then Chanschonkow was for some time as a consultant with the state film production and censorship authority Goskino, later as production manager at the film studio Proletkino.
In 1926 Chanschonkow was arrested along with several other officers of Proletkino after prosecutors opened a criminal embezzlement of government grants against the leadership of this organization. Although Chanschonkow was ultimately acquitted for lack of evidence, but he was banned from working. At about the same time deteriorated state of health Chanschonkows, which is why he moved from Moscow after Yalta. However, since he is no longer allowed to exercise his profession, he had his wife live in abject poverty.
1934 Chanschonkow wrote a letter to the chairman of the state film production authority Boris Schumjatzki, in which he pointed him to his material needs and his continued deteriorating health and asked that repealed the prohibition again. This had effect: Chanschonkow was rehabilitated and received from the State pension. Meanwhile, confined to a wheelchair, to Chanschonkow but could not devote the full amount of film production, instead he wrote memoirs. He spent his final years in Yalta, where he died in 1945.