Street artist and defender of the First Amendment, Chris Drew, gave his life and dedicated his energies to overturning Chicago Peddler’s License restrictions but instead, ended up  facing a Class One Felony Eavesdropping charge  for audio recording his own arrest. This journey started in 2008 at his arrest on State Street in front of Macy’s for selling art patches  for $1.  If convicted he would have faced four to fifteen years in prison. But he won this case and overturned the Illinois Eavesdropping Law with pro-bono attorneys Weinberg and Kutnick. (Kutnick won the battle VS State’s Attorney Alvarez)  It lead to the overturn of the Illinois Eavesdropping Law in 2014, but the Law was again reinstated in Dec.2014. As Chris would say,”the fight is never over.” 

THIS true story took place and filmed in Chicago, without any permits.

 Nancy Bechtol is a photojournalist and Associate Bureau Chief – Chicago /American Press Association (APA). Her photography and video documentation of social, political, art, cultural events, and street scenes include Occupy Chicago, NATO, Chuy Campaign, Special Olympics Polar Bear Plunge, and the Documentation/feature film of Chris Drew from 2009-2012 during his challenge, arrest and legal struggle as a street artist.  more info Visit :

http://americanpressassociation.com/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3505448/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_1

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3505448/externalsites

http://socialdocumentary.net/photographer/nancybechtol

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/peddlers-licenses-nancy-bechtol-chris-drew-documentary/Content?oid=13114129

http://artworldchicago.com/2014/09/28/free-speech-the-transcendent-journey-of-chris-drew-street-artist-2/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/invite-connect-from-beyond-cdrewartist-activist-rip-nancy-bechtol?trk=pulse_spock-articles