Imagine you’re watching one guy give testimony about how he survived a plane crash, one that happened to be one of the biggest tragedies in rock ’n’ roll history. The details are incredible: they were the one who talked sense to the pilots; they held the hand of singer Ronnie Van Zandt right before the crash; they pulled themselves out of the wreckage and ran for help. While watching this account, some historical reenactments are thrown in, in case you needed visual emphasis on what a rock ‘n’ roll gig looks like, or a reminder on ’70s hairstyles.

Written and directed by Jared Cohn, “Street Survivors” is about the first-person experience of drummer Artimus Pyle (played by Ian Shultis), who was with Lynard Skynard from 1974 until the crash in 1977, and later on from 1987 to 1991.

“Street Survivors” is fixated on simply reenacting Pyle’s traumatic memory, including the physical pain of everyone on board. It brings to mind how director Peter Berg approaches his own tests of historic physical endurance, “Lone Survivor” in particular, in which the core drama is in seeing how much the characters can take, even if we know who makes it out alive.  

In place of Lynyrd Skynyrd songs, there are various unintelligible scenes of people partying and yelling. Meanwhile there’s Artimus, the dedicated, focused, and talented disciple that rock ’n’ roll history forgot, despite his central involvement in the crash in 1977, which killed six people on board, including Van Zandt. 

“This film’s story, MY story, is not just about the plane crash but also about my personal relationship with the genius that was Ronnie Van Zant, whom I loved like a brother and still miss to this day,” says Artimus Pyle.