According to the latest Raindance newsletter from Elliot Grove, My Big Fat Greek Wedding has grossed 72 times what it cost to produce.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding was an independent film that saw tremendous success through self-distribution. After major studios rejected the script, Gold Circle Films (run by Raindance alumni Paul Brooks) and HBO produced it for $5,000,000.

To promote the film the filmmakers used word of mouth. There was no television campaign. A website was launched. But primarily, the film went from city to city, capturing audiences slowly but surely. The film first opened in 100 theatres. It went on to 1500 theatres. This was not a small task for a self- distributed film. And it resulted in a gross amount today of $360,000,000.

I bet Ed Blum and co would be delighted if their independently produced and distributed Scenes of a Sexual Nature returned anything close to that. It was produced for £250,000 and was one of my favourites from this year’s Raindance Film Festival.

That is how one trainspotter explains their love for trains in this quirky podcast called Hobby from shallowSHORTS100.

It is directed by Geoff Parsons and in eight minutes lays bare the obsessive world of trainspotting.

Stunningly edited, it is described as “a trainspotting opera of a film.”