TICKETS $15

Doors 6:30 p.m.; Event 7 p.m.
Select Showtime to Purchase Tickets

Click here to learn more about accessibility at the Tomorrow Theater. 

THE EXPERIENCE:

Join us for the Portland premiere screening of Space: A Meditation on the Meaning of Art, a documentary film directed by David Poulshock. This special event combines an exhibition of beloved painter and scene designer Tim Stapleton’s larger-than-life hexaptych Coal Miners with a live musical performance by Big Vibe, plus a screening of Space: A Meditation on the Meaning of Art, and a post-film Q&A with filmmaker David Poulshock and artist Samie-Jo Pfeifer.

ON SCREEN: Space: A Mediation on the Meaning of Art

2026. Directed by David Poulshock. Runtime: 95 minutes. 

Space: A Meditation on the Meaning of Art is a feature documentary that asks (and maybe answers) the question, “Why make art?” When his landlord sets out to convert an aging industrial complex into art studios, filmmaker Poulshock is invited to make a film about the three-year construction project. But three years turn into eight as their journey becomes a deep dive into humankind’s quest for meaning.

ON STAGE: 

David Poulshock (Director/Producer) – David Poulshock is filmmaker, writer and editor director whose work has won over 80 awards, including 9 national Tellys in 2015 alone. His projects include the best-selling Wee Sing kidvids (Universal Home Video); 8 episodes of America’s History in the Making and 13 episodes of Mathematics Illuminated (Annenberg Channel); the feature doc Raw Materials; The Wonderful World of the Wooleycat (BMG Kids); and The Head Table (TV pilot, Fox12), to name a few. His original screenplays have earned honors from some of the film industry’s leading script competitions, including Worldfest Houston, Slamdance, Scriptalooza, Writer’s Network, Austin Heart of the Screenplay and many others. David’s production company, Red Door Films, has produced work for such commercial clients as Life Flight Network, Nickelodeon/Nick Jr, Goodwill, The Yakama Nation, Spirit Mountain Casino, Spirit Mountain Community Fund, Freightliner, HP, Detroit Diesel, Intel, Tektronix, Dairy Queen, SawStop, G.I. Joe’s Budweiser 200, the Multnomah County Fair, and many more. As keyboardist with the legendary Northwest cult band Upepo, David is an inductee of the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. He has served on the adjunct faculty of the Art Institute of Portland; as Chairman of the 2005 Willamette Writers Conference; as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Northwest Academy (an arts-infused independent school); and on the Board of the Oregon Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. Pre COVID, he co-hosted the Portland chapter of the International Screenwriters Association Third Thursdays events. David grew up in the wilds of southern Oregon, is a graduate of Lewis and Clark College, and lives in Portland, Oregon, where his latest epic journey was as a marathon swimmer in the 2019-2023 Portland Bridge Swim — 11 miles, 12 bridges — from Sellwood to St. John’s. David was awarded the 2019 PLAYA Screenwriters Residency Award by the Oregon Made Creative Foundation, and his feature documentary SPACE has received grants from RACC, the Oregon Jewish Community Fund and an OMCF/Portland Post Production grant.

 Samie Jo Pfeifer  (Musician/Painter) – Tim Stapleton’s painting collaborator, Samie Jo Pfeifer, hails from the heartland of Kansas, where she was brought up in a family of musicians, with a diverse history in Polka, Celtic, Classical, and Rock music. She moved to Portland to attend The Portland Actors Conservatory, then moved on to work with Tim Stapleton in set design and painting around the city. Samie Jo has been working in the city as a musician, performer, painter, and visual artist since 2013. Instagram: @samiejoan Website: samiejo.bandcamp.com

Tim Stapleton (Artist) – Tim Stapleton was a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow. A professional scenic designer for thirty-six years, he also worked with Oregon’s Regional Arts & Culture Council as a liaison to Social Services, and taught theatre courses for Willamette University, Central Washington University, Lewis & Clark College, and Slippery Rock University. Some of his Portland designs included: This Lime Tree Bower (Drammy Award) with Our Shoes are Red, and Indiscretions (Drammy Award), The Laramie Project, Breaking the Code, Killer Joe (Drammy Award), The Night of the Iguana, The Quality of Life, The Miracle Worker, Civil War Christmas, and I and You, all at Artists Rep. Recent favorites are Waiting for Godot at Northwest Classical Theatre Collaborative, and The Turn of the Screw with Portland Shakespeare Project. Tim’s paintings have been exhibited in Huntington, West Virginia, with The Kentucky Arts Commission, and at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. In San Francisco, his work has been shown at the Mina Dresden Gallery and The California Institute of Integral Studies. His short stories, paintings, and poetry have been published by Inkwater Press, Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel Literary Journal, Mission at Tenth, and online by FOUR and TWENTY short form poetry, The Verse Marauder, and I’m From Driftwood. Tim holds an MFA in Creative Inquiry. Tim was a participant and featured artist in the film Space until his death in 2020 before the film was completed. He is beloved in the arts community in Portland and beyond and the film is dedicated to his memory.

Dave Storrs and Big Vibe (Band) – Oregon-based jazz drummer Dave Storrs is the mastermind — or should we say, master-ears — behind the various musical iterations seen and heard in Space, A Meditation on the Meaning of Art. Over the years, Dave’s free-form jazz gatherings have been variously named Big Vibe, Medium Vibe, Small Vibe, and even No Vibe, depending on who shows up to play in Storr’s sand-, uh, er, soundbox. Storrs and Space director David Poulshock have collaborated musically for over a decade and performed in competing Jazz/Funk/Latin bands in the 80s — Poulshock on keys in Upepo, Storrs on drums in Slowtrain. In 1969, Storrs remembers emerging from a basement rehearsal to witness a man walk on the moon, and ever since, his music has tended to ride the outer edge. His influences include Hendrix, Coltrane, The Beatles, Miles, Mingus, James Brown, Sun Ra and beyond . He has headed and composed for various ensembles, including Freezer Burn, Multnomah Rhythm Ensemble and The Tone Sharks. And his first albums, Ross Island (1984) and Jumper Cables (1987), received national air play and critical acclaim. Of Jumper Cables Cadence magazine said, “Storrs’ band offer convincing evidence that virtuoso jazz experimentation is taking place on the West Coast. In 1995 Storrs started Louie Records and continues his restless, experimental ways. It is that style of outer-edge experimentation that inspired Poulshock to literally bring Storrs and his music into the creative space of the film.

Note: We do not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, and films exhibited don’t necessarily reflect the views of PAM CUT, the Tomorrow Theater, or the Portland Art Museum. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on sites like Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com.