Japanese video artist Toshio Matsumoto became best known for Funeral Parade of Roses, about a trans woman trying to move up in the world of hostess clubs in Tokyo. The experimental short film Atman, on the other hand, is a visual tour-de-force: In the center of a circle, Matsumoto places a figure wearing a Hannya mask. In the circle, he places the camera in 480 different positions. The film seems full of zooms and pans, but they are really the result of a clever edit.

Atman is an early Buddhist deity often associated with destruction. The formally impressive film is sometimes compared to Michael Snow’s influential Wavelength. Matsumoto’s techniques also influenced his student Takashi Ito.