Protecting our planet has become big business, with companies like Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan Chase promoting new environmental markets. Investors buy up vast swathes of land, full of endangered species, to enable them to sell ‘nature credits’. Companies whose actions destroy the environment are now obliged to buy these credits and new financial centres have sprung up, specialising in this trade.

Many respected economists believe that the best way to protect nature is to put a price on it. But others fear that this market in nature could lead to companies taking a financial interest in a species’ extinction. There are also concerns that – like the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 – the market in nature credits is bound to crash. And there are wider issues at stake. What guarantees do we have that our natural inheritance will be protected? And should our ecological heritage be for sale?

In Banking Nature, directors Sandrine Feydel and Denis Delestrac investigate the commercialisation of the natural world. Interviews with respected economists like Pavan Sukhev reveal the polarised views toward this method of placing a monetary value on natural resources that are in jeopardy of disappearing.

Directed by Sandrine Feydel and Denis Delestrac
Duration: 90′
Year: 2014

Described as India’s “tinsel slum”, the Kathputli artist colony in New Delhi is home to over 1,500 families of puppeteers, acrobats, painters and magicians. That is all about to change. When the government sells the land to private developers, traditional life is set to be razed for the city’s first skyscraper.

Where outsiders see the slum’s rancid water and shacks, debut filmmakers Adam Weber and Jimmy Goldblum find stunning colours in death-defying performances. Whether bathed in sunlight or exploding against night skies, magnificent fire-eaters, sleight of hand magicians and glorious puppets radiate beauty in crisp, brilliant detail.

As in-fighting breaks out among colony leaders, spilling out into confrontations with developers and the government, the clock ticks onwards to the bulldozing date. Will the artists’ resolve to preserve their culture and overcome the push for progress?

Gorgeous and inspiring, Tomorrow We Disappear is a splendid tribute to fading artistry and the tenacity of tradition.

Directed by Adam Weber and Jimmy Goldblum
Duration: 85′
Year: 2014