Event Details
LPFF 2026 Opening Night Selection
A Life Outside: American Mountain Guides explores a century of American mountaineering through the extraordinary life and legacy of Paul Petzoldt, one of the pioneering figures of American climbing and outdoor education. A legendary guide and adventurer, Petzoldt climbed in the Himalayas, trained soldiers in the mountains during World War II, helped shape the Exum guide tradition in the Tetons, and founded the National Outdoor Leadership School, influencing generations of climbers, guides, and outdoor leaders.
His story is interwoven with a new generation of professional mountain guides, including Phil Powers, Jessica Baker, and Andy Blair, as they lead clients through the Tetons and the Alps and confront the same fundamental questions that defined Petzoldt’s life: How do you manage risk in an inherently dangerous environment? How do you pass hard-earned knowledge from one generation to the next? And why do some people feel compelled to build their lives in the mountains?
Filmmaker Mat Hames blends remarkable archival material with sweeping contemporary cinematography, as the story moves between past and present, from the early days of American mountain guiding to the highly skilled profession it has become today. Along the way, A Life Outside reveals judgment, trust, mentorship, resilience, and the guiding that can profoundly change a person.
At once an adventure story, a history of American mountaineering, and a meditation on our enduring relationship with wild places, A Life Outside asks what the mountains teach us.
Guests
Mat Hames- Director
Mat Hames is an Emmy Award winning Producer and Director, known for his documentaries included on Independent Lens, Amazon Prime, AppleTV, SundanceTV, Netflix, and Kanopy. He also is a founder of Alpheus Media, a studio that produces content for global brands. He was Knighted by King Albert the II of Belgium for his work on his film about the Belgian Resistance, Last Best Hope.
Hames’ directorial debut, Last Best Hope, traced a downed P-47 pilot’s journey through escape lines in Belgium during WWII. His next film When I Rise premiered at the SXSW Film Festival and HotDocs in Canada, and went on to win awards at 10 additional festivals, before being nominated for an IDA Award. Hames spent the next three years making What Was Ours (Prime Video) on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming while simultaneously continuing to manage Alpheus Media’s commercial brand work. What Was Ours received a prestigious ITVS Open Call grant, had an award winning festival run, was included in Independent Lens on PBS, and was featured on HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Hames also made the short Fighting Goliath, narrated by Robert Redford. Later, his acclaimed 12 hour long PBS series Power Trip: the Story of Energy recieved funding from the Sloan Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Pritzker Innovation Fund. Based on the book by Michael Webber, the Power Trip series captures the sweeping history of energy history with interviews with over 100 historians, scientists and energy policy makers. For Power Trip, Hames leads an international production team to film in Iceland, Japan, Singapore, Israel, France, Italy, Wales, England, Ireland and the USA. The series is in it’s second season, won two Telly Awards and is now streaming on all the major platforms.
Power Trip: The Story of Energy has to date been seen by more than 10 million viewers on networks in over 10 countries. PBS selected Power Trip to debut it’s new streaming platform on Prime, PBS Documentaries, where it was a Top 10 series. Additionally, PBS selected Power Trip to feature on it’s official YouTube channel for it’s 1.3 million subscribers.
His series A State of Mind has won four National Academy of Television Arts and Science Heartland Chapter Emmy Awards, while being nominated for six. His television documentary Fossil Country was nominated for the 45th Annual News and Doc Emmy Awards, and won a regional Emmy.
Hames also made a portrait of two Native American Artists, The Art of Home (PBS Living Channel), filmed in Santa Fe, Denver, and Wyoming.
Hames is a co-founder of commercial production company Alpheus Media, based in Austin Texas. In addition to documentaries, with Alpheus Media, Mat has also directed national TV commercials for global brands, and made short films for clients like Warner Bros, The Economist, Johns Hopkins, University of Texas and MD Anderson Cancer Center, as well as hundreds of online video campaigns for cause-based brands such as LIVESTRONG, Movember, Athletes for Hope, Partners in Health, and Bill and Economist Educational Foundation.
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