Today, September 15th, marks 10 years since the event that caused what would come to be known as the Great Recession. The collapse of Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers was a global sounding alarm. It made investors realize that predictions of a US housing market collapse were more than just speculation. CGTN's Phil Lavelle looks at how in the wake of all that, movies about the darker side of finance have gained in popularity.

You can't get away from reality TV in the US. But there's another aspect of this genre grabbing attention here.

KIMBERLY REED DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER "I think it's moving out of the niche."

That is - the documentary film which is seeing a particular resurgence.

PHIL LAVELLE LOS ANGELES "Or, to be more specific, those real-life movies about MONEY."

MATT PRESSBERG, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER 'THE INFORMATION' NEWS WEBSITE "There's a lot of dramatic characters, a lot of larger than life personalities, and it's really hitting a vein with the audience."

Hollywood's spent years giving us its treatment. Movies like The Wolf of Wall Street, Margin Call, The Big Short, Wall Street to name a few. Dramatic tales based on reality. Seems now it's time for fact to have its starring moment.

KIMBERLY REED DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER "I've certainly noticed a hunger on the part of the American public to find really well-researched investigative stories that are well-told too."

PHIL LAVELLE LOS ANGELES "To see why, forget this place. Head here. Or here. Or here. They're all getting in on it."

Take Dirty Money, for example. Netflix's series - said to be one of the streaming giant's biggest ever hits exploring everything from corporate money laundering to drugs cartels. Critics on Rotten Tomatoes giving this one 100%.

Generation Wealth - an eight-year project has been wowing critics at the big festivals - it's hitting Amazon later this year. And these kinds of films even getting as far as the Oscars.

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, a real life nail-biter about a family-owned, Chinese-American bank up against the authorities in an all-stakes trial. It was nominated for Best Documentary at this year's Academy Awards. Movies like this, no longer consigned to niche status.

STEVE JAMES, DIRECTOR 'ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL' "The stature of documentaries has really grown quite a lot in this country. There was a time when the best documentary oscar was just something that happened during the show and people would look all 'whatever, maybe I'll go get a sandwich now'. Nowadays, there's way more attention paid to the documentary nomination process and who's going to win."

PHIL: "Are we seeing a trend here?"

MATT: "We ARE seeing a trend. I think what you're seeing is the prime movie-going demographic really had their lives shaped by the financial crisis, and they're starting to be interested in how this affects all aspects of their life."

The other issue here is MAKING money out of movies ABOUT money. While you're not going to see the kind of takings that rival a Marvel or a Disney movie, documentaries CAN be fairly lucrative if they hit the right tone. Movies like 'Inside Job' and 'Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room' - both grossing around four million at the U.S. box office.

Will Dark Money make money? Maybe.

"It was really a challenge to tell a story about money and politics that was about human beings and there was a human face on this story."

But its director's main goal is to tell a powerful story - and shine that journalistic light. Ninety minutes of investigative journalism here on the shady world of secretive election funding.

PHIL: "Why do you think people are interested in films about these kinds of issues?"

KR: "There's been a compression in journalism, and there aren't as many watchdog reporters who are following the money. So I think that leaves it up to documentary filmmakers to do it. Our story is pretty complex. Here in the States, I think a lot of people recognize that if you really wanna figure out what's going on, you need an in-depth story that's gonna do the reporting you used to find in a local newspaper, you're gonna have to turn to a documentary."

And so, while the stock market goes up and down, it seems the appeal of the financial film is just going up. Phil Lavelle, CGTN, Los Angeles.