How Best Side Cycling inspired a longtime documentary editor to finally make his own short film – Premieres April 16

Philip Thangsombat has been an editor on other people's documentaries for 14 years, but I have always found excuses to not make my own film," he said during a recent conversation with Seattle Bike Blog. That is until he met Hanoch Yeung.

You may know Yeung better as the person behind Best Side Cycling on YouTube. I have a lot of admiration for [Yeung] because he is somebody who doesn't have any video production experience, and yet he started a YouTube channel," said Thangsombat. Yeung just had a passion for showcasing cycling in King County and figured out the technical stuff as he went. He said Yeung shows that anyone can do anything," and that Best Side Cycling transcends cycling."

The Best Sides of Cycling premieres 7 p.m. April 16 at SIFF Cinema Uptown. It will be followed by a Q&A with Thangsombat and Yeung. Tickets are sliding scale from $5-$15, and a portion of the proceeds will go to Ampersand Bikes Club.

Thangsombat first found the channel a couple years ago when he decided to give bike riding another chance. He originally learned to bike when he was 25 in New York City, which was kind of crazy," but he found himself being fearful and reluctant at the time, so he stopped. I enjoyed being on a bike, but just was fearful of riding with cars." When he tried again a few years ago in Seattle, however, he found Best Side Cycling. Hanoch's channel just helped ease my anxiety." He said he would watch a route guide video multiple times before trying it himself. If I'm on a ride, I recognize it from his videos and so I know what to do."

Thangsombat also found another community resource: The Ampersand Bikes Club. Riding with ABC is also how he was able to meet the guy behind the videos he'd been watching. Through it all, he was inspired to finally go for it and work on his own documentary film, and he knew who the subject would be.

The Best Sides of Cycling is a tight 20 minutes that is not a super serious documentary" about the power of cycling to bring people closer together." It focuses on Hanoch and how he started the channel. But it's also about more than that.

I was really drawn to his relationship with his dad because it's kind of similar to mine," said Thangsombat. So it was kind of like telling my story with my dad through his story."