How State of Pride connects Salt Lake City to a wider LGBTQ conversation

State of Pride is a 2019 documentary that places Salt Lake City within a broader conversation about LGBTQ identity, activism and Pride. Directed by Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein, the film follows YouTuber and LGBTQ activist Raymond Braun as he travels to meet young LGBTQ people and hear how they understand the movement and its meaning in their own lives.

Salt Lake City is one of the film’s central stops, alongside San Francisco and Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Rather than presenting Pride as a single, uniform experience, the documentary uses these locations to show how perspectives can differ by place and circumstance. In its Utah segment, Braun speaks with a young gay disabled man, adding disability and personal experience to the film’s examination of LGBTQ life.

The documentary’s approach is built around conversations rather than a chronological account of LGBTQ history. Its focus is on the people Braun meets and on their views of Pride Month. The result is a location-based portrait of how younger LGBTQ people describe belonging, visibility and the continuing significance of the movement.

Other portions of the film broaden that perspective. In Alabama, Braun interviews trans women of color. In San Francisco, he follows a young trans woman attending her first Pride event and also speaks with actor and drag performer Heklina. These encounters give the Utah material a national context, connecting Salt Lake City to other communities and experiences represented in the documentary.

The film also includes Troye Sivan, Braun and Heklina, and was the first of three documentaries hosted on YouTube for Pride 2019. It premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 8, 2019, before becoming available on YouTube on May 29 of that year.

For Salt Lake City viewers, State of Pride offers an LGBTQ-focused snapshot of the city as part of a larger national journey. Its lasting subject is not a single event, but the range of ways young LGBTQ people understand Pride and the rights movement. The documentary’s value as a local point of reference comes from placing Utah voices alongside those from California and Alabama, inviting audiences to consider both shared concerns and distinct experiences.

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Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://www.huffpost.com/entry/state-of-pride-youtube-lgbtq-documentary_n_5cda2fe1e4b0615b081802a1 - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/rob-epstein-jeffrey-friedman-direct-state-pride-youtube-1142878 - https://www.out.com/film/2019/5/29/what-raymond-braun-learned-about-state-pride - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J48BIRaG7A - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9098862/ - https://schedule.sxsw.com/2019/films/2011020 Image rights Photograph description: RESIDENCE OF HON. DeFOE SKINNER, VALPARAISO. Date: 1895 Source Type: Photograph Publisher, Printer, Photographer: Lee and Lee Postmark: Not Applicable Collection: Steven R. Shook Remark: DeForest Leslie Skinner resided at 208 North Washington Street in Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana. This house still stands in 2021. The following biographical sketch of DeForest L. Skinner is published in the L Creator: Steve Shook from Moscow, Idaho, USA. License: CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ADeForest_Leslie_Skinner_Residence_at_208_North_Washington_Street%2C_1895_-_Valparaiso%2C_Indiana_(50530008087).jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.