Tick Tock Clock

With rare 8mm film footage, Tick Tock Clock is a groundbreaking, historical film showing the fun, innocence and joy of 1950's teenage life in Texas during the birth of rock and roll, from those who lived it. This film is a journey that ties the Past to the Present, for everyone.

The Past is the 1950s when James Dean and Elvis Presley were the stars of the day, inciting teenagers to break away from conservative restraints and embrace a new rebellion, along with it's explosive new music, called "rock and roll". Through rare 8mm film taken by teenagers during this liberating era, you'll see their eyes sparkle as they throw off the constraints of post-WWII restrictions, and fly like birds with their new found freedom. From the bedrooms of slumber parties with girls in their baby doll pajamas, to the roof tops where they danced on many a summer day, rock-boppin' to the jitterbug beat, you'll see life as it was on Sunburst Street in Bellaire, Texas (Houston) through the eyes of Texas teenage girls and their friends. This was all documented by them on 8mm film at a time when it was inconceivable that a 13 year old girl would have been given her own movie camera. That girl, Gail Reaben, is now the director of "Tick Tock Clock".

For some of you, this Past represents a time when your parents were teenagers, maybe even your grandparents and for those very young ones, your great grandparents. You will understand what it was like for them, growing up when television was brand new and first invented, when they were a teen like you and fell in love for the first time. For others you'll see your own life and remember the enchanting, magical life of being young again in the 1950's.

The Present is Christmas, 2014 when the director hears that the old house she grew up in, known as Party Central at Bellaire High School, and where most of the filming took place, is being torn down to make way for a mega mansion. Reaben had lost the house in a bankruptcy in 2000 and was still emotionally attached to its every board and nail. It's destruction at Christmas was especially poignant as she moved into the house on Christmas Day, 1952, and met her to-be-life long friend Marty, on that very same day. Gathering up Marty, a former school teacher and mother of a screenwriter daughter and their old friend Tom, a commercial space planner, they meet at the house. As bulldozers break and carry away the foundation they see their memories go along with it. It was a time when all they did was dance and play. A surprise awaits as we find out these now much older friends can still dance the day away.