Woodstock filmmaker Chris Finlay, well-versed in making documentaries, is embarking on his first feature-length film. The new film, Love in a Time of Covid, is a work of fiction partly inspired by Finlay’s documenting of the local homeless. For this project, Finlay has joined forces with multimedia content creator Will Urbane.
Finlay has produced a couple of Woodstock documentaries. Last year, he released Shady Waters about the illegal dump in the hamlet of Shady. The year before, Homeless in Woodstock, Last Night in The Van portrayed how the homeless were shut out of vital services due to the Covid pandemic.
The new film, Love in a Time of Covid, is a work of fiction partly inspired by Finlay’s documentation of the homeless. It captures one day in the life of a group of people in Woodstock, most of whom are on the fringes of society.
The one thing they have in common is they all need to be loved and to be part of the community.
“When I made the documentary Homeless in Woodstock, I found homelessness was not caused by drug or alcohol addiction or any kind of mental-health issue, although a good percentage of homeless people do end up having those afflictions,” Finlay said.
Every homeless person he got to know over the two-year period of shooting had in common, he said, “that they’d all suffered tremendous loss and were grieving that loss in their own way, and part of that grieving process was them being homeless.”
Finlay described Love in the Time of Covid as non-judgmental.
“I think the most important thing about the movie is — what inspired me to do this — was the importance of friendship between people and the power of friendship, rather than the power of romantic love,” he said. “So it’s an exploration of that dynamic, and it’s also a movie that was inspired by real people that I met, that you know, that touched me, their stories they told me.”
The members of the audiences will have to make up their own minds at the end what Love in the Time of Covid means to them, he said. “Everybody will take a different meaning from the movie, I’m sure.”
Finlay believes a work of fiction can reach more people. “Sometimes there’s more truth in the imagination than reality,” he said.
Urbane said the two met when Finlay was filming the chaotic atmosphere of the botched first attempt at a public hearing for Woodstock’s proposed noise ordinance.
“I didn’t get to speak to him that day, but he had the camera all over the place, in people’s faces. I was just capturing the craziness that happened after,” Urbane said. “And then I wind up reaching out to him sometime, and we got together and we talked about some other things, and then he brought this to me, and me being a person that’s been in this town for a very long time, I have my resources and my connection to not only the community, but also to media and the industry as well.”
Urbane is excited about capturing the essence of many of Woodstock’s characters.
“If there’s something here that comes down to the community, I like being a part of it, and it just made sense,” said Urbane, who attended Woodstock Elementary and Onteora High School. “The script was cool, you know. And I get to play a role in it, so that will be good and it will be exciting.”
Urbane began his career writing and recording original music. Covid derailed his plans, and he pivoted to video production. His new YouTube channel Will Urbane Vlogs offers new episodes on Saturdays with interviews of artists, musicians and other people of local interest.
Urbane is working with AMG-Sony on a film called City of Shadows, an action-thriller scheduled for May 2025 release.
Join the family! 
