Oliver Gaycken, Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, has a particular interest in early cinema and popular science. That perspective is brought to bear on most of his five picks, including both fiction and nonfiction films.

Oliver is the author of Devices of Curiosity: Early Cinema and Popular Science. His articles have appeared in Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, Science in Context, Journal of Visual Culture, Early Popular Visual Culture, Screen, and the collection Learning with the Lights Off.

Visit the5bestfilmsofeveryyearever.com/list to submit your own top five for 1906!

Films and resources mentioned:

• A Trip Down Market Street Before the Fire (1906) - Harry Miles
• A Visit to Peek Frean and Co.’s Biscuit Works (1906) - unknown
• La neuropatologia (1906) - Roberto Omegna
• Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) - J. Stuart Blackton
• The Vacuum Cleaner (1906) - Segundo de Chomón
• [warning] Electrocuting an Elephant (1903) - Edwin S. Porter
• The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) - Charles Tait
• San Francisco Earthquake & Fire: April 18, 1906 (1906) - unknown
• Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906) - Edwin S. Porter
• Eureka (1974) - Ernie Gehr
• Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son (1969) - Ken Jacobs
• Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016) - Bill Morrison
• New York Subway (1905) - Billy Bitzer
• The Great Train Robbery (1903) - Edwin S. Porter
• The Big Swallow (1901) - James Williamson
• La Séparation de Doodica-Radica (1902) - Eugène-Louis Doyen
• [warning] Epileptic Seizure nos. 1-9 (1905) - Walter G. Chase
• The Enchanted Drawing (1900) - J. Stuart Blackton
• Fantasmagorie (1908) - Émile Cohl
• Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) - Winsor McCay
• A Lightning Sketch (Chamberlain) [1896] - Georges Méliès
• The Magnetized Man (1906) - Louis Feuillade
• Fantômas (1913) - Louis Feuillade
• Les vampires (1915) - Louis Feuillade
• Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922) - Fritz Lang
• “‘Experiments of Destruction’: Cinematic Inscriptions of Physiology” - Lisa Cartwright
• Picturing Time: The Work of Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904) - Marta Braun
• “The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century”
• Medicine on Screen