Novaya kniga kinoveda i kul'turologa Marka Kushnirova posvyashchena samomu maloizvestnomu periodu istorii rossiyskogo kino — pervomu dosovetskomu desyatiletiyu ego sushchestvovaniya. Ee geroyami yavlyayutsya sozdateli pervyh kinofil'mov Aleksandr Hanzhonkov i Pavel Drankov, rezhissery Vladimir Gardin, Evgeniy Bauer, YAkov Protazanov, scenarist Aleksandr Goncharov, znamenitye aktery Vera Holodnaya, Vera Karalli, Ol'ga Preobrazhenskaya, Ivan Mozzhuhin, Vladimir Gaydarov i mnogie drugie. Ih lakonichnye portrety-eskizy vpisany v shirokuyu panoramu stanovleniya russkogo kinematografa i ego postepennogo prevrashcheniya iz zrelishcha v iskusstvo. Istochnikom dlya knigi stali starye kinozhurnaly i afishi iz sobraniya avtora, chudom sohranivshiesya kinolenty, ustnye i pis'mennye vospominaniya zvezd nemogo kino.