Routine traffic hurries through the intersection at Spring Cypress and Huffmeister roads as a bare cross draped with flowers and pictures of Aaron Pennywell quietly sits at the corner. Seasonal bouquets and notes from friends circulate during the year to remember the late Cypress Woods graduate who was killed by a drunken driver in June 2011.
After his death, childhood friend Caten Hyde produced the award-winning documentary "1:36," which swept Texas film festivals and won the Houston International Film Festival's Platinum Remi Award.
"Somebody told me that this is a great story that I should have never had to tell," Hyde said.
Hyde said the initial layout of the documentary was conceived at Pennywell's funeral. His mother, Kae Pennywell, corralled Aaron's friends for production and sat down with her husband Dennis Pennywell to discuss life after their son's death.
"You're not trying to cross any lines, but they want a movie to tell their story," Hyde said. "They knew the questions weren't going to be easy."
As a childhood friend, Hyde said during production Aaron's death did not affect him until the final product premiered in February.
"For me really it was weird, I had a pretty good emotional separation working on it," he said. "I really didn't get choked up until we had the premier at the church the same place we had his funeral."
Production spanned eight months and interviews occurred after the one-year anniversary of the accident. Tina Fleming, a friend of Aaron's and a lead figure in Buddies Against Drunk Driving said the film is a way to inform high school students about the aftermath of drunken driving.
Fleming collaborated alongside Hyde with friends Dakota Woodard, Aubrie Cheatham and Joseph Sisneros to conduct a campaign with B.A.D.D. to spread Aaron's story. Harris County leads the number of fatality rates from drunken drivers in the state, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. In 2012 there were 175 fatalities from drunken driving accidents in Harris County, the highest in Texas.
To address the rising statistics, "1:36" has been shown to health classes throughout Cy-Fair ISD. Kae and Dennis Pennywell tow Aaron's mangled Mustang to schools to allow students touch and see the intensity of the accident.
"You can't controls somebody's choice to drink and drive," Fleming said. "We think that if you could just save one person, one person is better than nobody."
Fleming recently appeared on TxDOT's Faces of Drunk Driving campaign to spread Aaron's story. A video has been released and has circulated through Facebook as Aaron's friends explain how his death has imprinted them.
"I would just think if Aaron was here would I want to be sad or would I want to be happy," Fleming said. "Thinking about Aaron I just don't get sad. He was the brightest person."
"1:36"will not be release for public viewing until Hyde finishes submitting the film at various festivals