[DVD w/PPR available mid-June 2025 / Digital Site Licenses available now]
Premiered at The Roxy, NYC on May 19, 2025, Pusherman is the true story of Harlem dope dealer Frank Lucas and how crime and ghetto culture entered popular culture.
As told by the man himself, Pusherman is the real-life story of Frank Lucas, the Harlem dope-dealer who migrated north from a rural southern town to become a Harlem based gangster of the highest order. He could not read but he built an empire that changed the culture in Harlem and across NYC. He is, among many other things, known as the guy who smuggled pure heroin from Southeast Asia’s “Golden Triangle” into the U.S. inside the coffins of dead GI’s flown back from Vietnam.
‘If there really is a true cultural story of Frank Lucas, this is it. The inclusion of how the story became myth and a brand is profound. Congratulations! Really something to be proud of and I am personally touched to be in it.” – Mark Jacobson, the journalist who broke the story in New York Magazine.
Narrated by Mark Jacobson, who wrote the original story for New York magazine, that the hit movie, “American Gangster,” was based on, and produced by Legs McNeil, award-winning best-selling author and film documentarian, with extra commentary by Daily News and New York Magazine crime writer, Michael Daly. Pusherman will reveal the spectacular story of heroin and Vietnam and the cultural phenomena known as Blaxploitation films in the 1970’s.
“It’s those who knew Frank, the man himself, who pull back the curtain on life in Harlem in the 1970s [and] it brilliantly presents the richness of the tapestry it weaves as a snapshot of New York City culture in the 1970s.” – T. Kakadelis, The Sound View.
“Pusherman explores Lucas’ life through the lens of the lore surrounding Black gangsters”. – Ryan Gajewski, The Hollywood Reporter.
The ending further explores and reveals the epidemic of police corruption in New York City during the 1970’s– all the subjects and stories the $255 million grossing film that “American Gangster” left out.
2024 / Documentary / MVD Visual / 80 Minutes / English / A film by Legs McNeil.
HOW TO ORDER:
Public Performance and Digital Site Licenses are available through Soundview Media Partners. To inquire or to place an order, write to info@soundviewmediapartners.com or simply choose from the options below:
For group screening prices, please inquire.
In-home/personal use copies are available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4jczvTq
WATCH THE TRAILER