Experiencing Interruptions?

Worms Ate My Flesh

Some time ago, New-Zealand-born musician/filmmaker Broad Oak had a particularly vivid and disturbing dream. "I was dead and buried in the ground, yet somehow conscious," he says. "Lying there in complete darkness, I could feel worms and insects devouring my flesh and crawling through my eye sockets." The next day he was inspired by the experience to record a piece of music but only finished it in 2021 while recovering from covid in Berlin. "Although I didn't have a severe case, it led to me contemplating my own mortality so it felt appropriate to come back to this piece and finally finish it." The mesmerising animated video is a collaboration with an AI called WZRD and represents the cyclic and transformative nature of life and matter from cells to galaxies.

  • Nigel Braddock
    Director
  • Nigel Braddock
    Music
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Music Video, Short, Web / New Media
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 56 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 25, 2021
  • Country of Origin:
    New Zealand
  • Country of Filming:
    Germany
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • ALC Video Art Festival
    Alicante
    Spain
    May 5, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Hiroshima Animation Festival
    Hiroshima
    Japan
    August 17, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Bloomington Indiana Film Festival
    Bloomington
    United States
    April 9, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Anibar Animation Festival
    Peja
    Kosovo
    July 11, 2022
    Official Selection
  • AI International Film Festival
    Salt Lake City
    United States
    March 11, 2022
    Best Music Video, Best AI Graphics
  • Mediawave International Film and Music Gathering
    Győr
    Hungary
    May 4, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Boden International Film Festival
    Boden
    Sweden
    February 13, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Bamburger Kurzfilmtage
    Bamburg
    Germany
    January 28, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Courant 3D Film Festival
    Angouleme
    France
    October 5, 2021
    Official Selection
  • Vagrant Film Festival
    Gomel
    Belarus
    June 10, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Anmtn!
    Online
    May 29, 2022
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Nigel Braddock

Originally trained as a classical pianist in his native New Zealand, Braddock set up his own record label, Monkey Records, in 2000. As well as making a career as a music producer, band manager and dj, he has been involved in producing and directing quite a few of the music videos released by his label. Now based in Berlin, he makes music and video as Broad Oak and plays in bands The Mung Beings and Cosmo and the Cosmonaut with his son.

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Director Statement

The music for Worms Ate My Flesh was inspired by a very intense dream I had and so collaborating with WZRD AI seemed like a perfect match. The hallucinatory abstract morphing images work beautifully with the music in creating a surreal dreamlike state. The dream itself began as a nightmare about my own death but ended in acceptance and a certain peace. I tried to capture that journey in the progression of this video from chaos and decay to unity.