AUBURN GRESHAM — Aspiring film director Joseph Gatheright says he is all too familiar with the realities that earned Chicago its most controversial nickname — “Chiraq."
Yet the 22-year-old Roseland man was shocked to find himself handcuffed in the back of a squad car in late May after police caught him with what appeared to be almost $3 million worth of heroin.
While shooting scenes for a film about a man struggling to escape the grip of crime and poverty that plagues his South Side community, Gatheright “got caught up in the same type of scenario” that threatens to destroy the main character in his independent film, he said.
The film is titled, “The Laws of CHI-RAQ.”
Joseph discusses the night of his arrest and how this experience is affecting his film:
The story "is about a young guy who just wants to get out of the 'hood. But he gets trapped,” Gatheright said in a recent interview with DNAinfo Chicago, after being cleared of the drug charges late last month.
“Chicago has this bad title, 'Chiraq,' that originated from these rappers telling you about their communities,” he said.
The main character, named "G," he said, "gets trapped in Chiraq.”
In the film, he graduates from college only to find rejection in the job market, and by a few missteps, winds up working as a delivery man for a drug cartel.
Gatheright said "The Laws of CHI-RAQ" is informed by his observations of life on the South Side. The main character's predicament was inspired by his own struggle to make a dream reality.
"Being a black guy, I feel as though you do your best to try to run from poverty," said Gatheright, who had just started filming when he had his ill-fated encounter with police.
The youngest of 18 siblings, Gatheright comes from a tight-knit family, he said. His mother and father are married, active in their church and engaged in the lives of their children.
Where there has been no shortage of love, the Gatherights could not afford to keep Joseph in film school at Columbia College.
He left Columbia and got a school loan to attend community college. However, he promptly spent the loan money on video equipment and dropped out.
Without a budget to speak of, Gatheright is putting everything he has into the film project. He does writing, shooting, editing and finds aspiring actors willing to work for free.
"In my neighborhood, if you make it, you're either a mailman or a police officer. There are no doctors that live next door," he said. "The young people see the rappers, the basketball players, so that’s what they want to be."
Gatheright hopes the film, which he plans to air on YouTube in 15-minute segments next year, will be his own ticket out of the neighborhood.
But on May 26, Memorial Day, it was his ticket to jail.
That night, after shooting scenes for the film, Gatheright got pulled over in the 1600 block of West 78th Street, an area officials say is known for gang and drug activity. A police report said he was stopped for failing to use his turn signal and said he agreed to let police look in his trunk.
In the trunk, police spotted bags full of flour — props meant to look like drugs.
Gatheright said he tried to explain, but police didn’t buy his story.
Gatheright, who has no criminal record, was arrested and charged with dealing what prosecutors initially alleged was more than $3 million worth of heroin.
In court, attorneys representing Gatheright argued that he was a budding film director and told the judge that the suspected drugs were fake.
"So they're props for filming?" Cook County Judge Donald Panarese Jr. said at the hearing, finding Gatheright’s defense plausible.
Two weeks later, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office dropped the charges against Gatheright after lab tests found the white powder from his trunk to be negative for drugs, according to court records.
That was after the young filmmaker was forced to spend a night in lockup at the police station and two nights in Cook County Jail.
Terrified, Gatheright said he slipped into character, imagining that he was G, trapped in the same cycle of crime and poverty in spite of the fact that he is “a good guy, who made good choices.”
“It doesn’t matter who you are or how hard you try, you can always get trapped,” said Gatheright.
Officials said the officers involved Gatheright's case were just doing their job.
“Obviously and understandably, the officers were operating based on their experience and training when they saw what appeared to be illegal narcotics,” a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department said when questioned about the case.
Gatheright said he understands police have a difficult job. Still, he thinks he deserves an apology.
“The evidence [or lack thereof] was right in their face,” he said. “They just wanted to get the giant drug bust.”
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