An unsparing look at the chaos of daily life in Benares, India, one of the world’s most holy cities, Forest of Bliss unfolds from one sunrise to the next with no voiceover commentary, dialogue or subtitles, forcing the viewer to focus on the larger issues of life and death that gradually and inevitably take hold.

An early film made while Gardner was a graduate student at the University of Washington, Blunden Harbour is an incisive look at the small group of Kwakiutl Indians living on the coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. The black and white short can be viewed as Gardner’s first film, indicating the direction and tendencies which would continue to resurface in his subsequent work.