Inside ‘Humans of Pride,’ a documentary showing why Pride still matters

For filmmaker Kevin Coop, Pride has never just been about parades. It’s about community power and showing up for one another when the world tries to tear you down.

Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.

That ethos is evident in Humans of Pride, Coop’s latest documentary chronicling the 2019 WorldPride celebration in New York City. Days before WorldPride 2025 was set to kick off in Washington, D.C., Coop premiered the film at a packed screening at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema and is already filming its follow-up: Humans of Pride: D.C.

“It was a great success,” Coop said of the premiere. “It was everything that we could dreamt of and hoped for. The community came far and wide for it that I thought weren’t gonna show up. Things just fell into place.”

The film captures the spirit of WorldPride 2019, commemorating 50 years since the Stonewall Riots in 1969 by threading together archival footage, intimate interviews, protest footage, and cameos from over 50 LGBTQ+ leaders and trailblazers like Billy Porter, Laverne Cox, Randy Wicker, Cathy Renna, Cecilia Gentili, Dominique Jackson and more.

But as Coop explained, the film isn’t just a time capsule. It’s a call to action.

“One [goal] was creating a blueprint of activism for generations to come,” he shared. “To understand how to organize in the grassroots of it all — from AIDS and the ACT UP movement, all the way through Sylvia Rivera and what she was doing [for the trans community]. So, allowing people 30 years from now to watch and say, ‘I get it.’”

He added: “The other thing is really just solidarity, that we’re stronger together. Yes, we are a family, and families do fight, but at the end of the day, we must unite.”

Perhaps the film’s most powerful moment, according to Coop, is watching 1973 footage of Rivera grabbing a mic in Washington Square Park and demanding to be heard.

“She commanded an audience to listen to her,” he recalled. “She stole the mic and said, ‘Y’all better quiet down.’ By the end, there was this uniting moment calling us to not be ignorant to the realities that we all exist in, because all of this affects all of us.”

That fight for trans inclusion is layered with modern interviews with advocates like activist Raquel Willis and the late Cecilia Gentili, drawing a clear line between Rivera’s legacy and today’s movement for gender justice.

“We packaged that up into this beautiful moment,” Coop said.

The idea for Humans of Pride began in October 2018. The team filmed during the full 30-day WorldPride NYC calendar (over 100 events with 4 million attendees) then spent the pandemic reflecting, reorganizing, and assembling the story alongside editor Ethan Newman, whom Coop met through Craigslist.

“We still have some credits to clean up,” he joked. “But Halloween of 2018 through, like, yesterday — that’s how long it took [to finish editing].”

Coop announced during a panel at the premiere that the Humans of Pride series will continue, with Humans of Pride: D.C. currently in production.

“As long as WorldPride is continuing, Humans of Pride continues,” he said. “We’re going to create a documentary series of feature films that unearth the history and the contemporary of that city and that country, wherever it lands.”

He and his crew were set up in D.C. during the events — filming everything from marches to panel events, as activists from around the world descend on the capital.

The tone may feel different this time. While the first film captured a moment of celebration, this one lands amid political regression, violence against trans people, and what Coop calls “Trump 2.0.” But the fight continues. As he put it, the community has gotten smarter.

“What 2019 brought forward, and what the time gap between then and now shows, is that the political climate got worse and we got smarter,” he said. “We learned how to mobilize, how to get grassroots organized. And we’re seeing that now on the streets of D.C.”

When asked what he hopes queer youth take away from the film, Coop doesn’t hesitate.

“I want this to recruit you,” he said, referencing Harvey Milk. “I want this to be a message of recruitment for the next generation of young activists — not just to fight, but to find the joy that is in the fight.”

He added: “There is so much beautiful connectivity that occurs when you get involved in activism. Your chosen family will show up. It’s not just blood, sweat and tears. It’s joy.”