Six Men Getting Sick foi a primeira incursão de David Lynch no cinema. Com esta curta realizada em 1967, durante o segundo ano de estudos na Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Lynch pretendia, segundo o próprio, criar uma noção de movimento nos seus desenhos.  

I was painting very dark paintings. And I saw some little part of this figure moving, and I heard a wind. And I really wanted these things to move and have a sound with them. And so I started making an animated film as a moving painting. And that was it.

Depois do seu desejo concretizado Lynch descreveu esta curta como fifty-seven seconds of growth and fire, and three seconds of vomit.