Nathanial Hornblower was born on a farm in Appenzell Switzerland in 1948. A strange child, he refused to go to school. Instead he would spend his time alone in the barn with the cows and goats. Having no friends and little contact with his own family he usually only spoke to the animals, and to them only in a series of grunts and snorts. He had no interest in normal clothing and fashioned his own styles from old shed dog hair and cat dander. Many thought that he might be slightly retarded, but then through a series of accidents and mishaps he came into his own.

His life really began to take shape at age 10 when he took his fathers 8mm camera and created his first short film. He called it “My Drunken Toenail.” When he told his family about his idea for his film they thought it absurd, but it was the dawning of the era of the French new wave, and abstract and absurdist filmmaking was just on the eve of exploding. Nathanial’s mother sent his short to the Film Academy in Geneva thinking that they were a lab that would develop the film and send it back. But in a bazaar series of misunderstandings, they took “My Drunken Toenail” as an application for admission and young Hornblower was accepted. On the basis of one abstract, out of focus short film, he was erroneously admitted, and became the youngest student to ever attend the Academy. The press picked up on it and had a field day.

With all the attention and unlimited access to film making equipment, he went balls out in an attempt to revolutionize the very concept of filmmaking. He would scream at the reels of film saying that his emotions would be transferred into the film. He would pee on the film and dance around the projector while it was showing his movies.

Needless to say, things didn’t really pan out. His films met with mediocre reviews, and in general his peers thought him a bit much. He made wild claims often telling fellow students things like “you are all biting my style” and “don’t be a hater” or even “I am the winner!!”

Over time his fellow students began to distance themselves from him and he blossomed into a full-blown weirdo.