This nomination was historically significant as it was the first time a film originally produced for television was recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Best Documentary Feature category.

During this time Kelman also began plying his trade at all levels of production in the early days of live black-and-white television, under the guidance of the professionals operating the pioneer educational station WGBH.

Kalman's master's thesis, The Role of Television in the 1958 Massachusetts Gubernatorial Campaign, was described by George D. Blackwood, PhD (Boston University Professor of Political Science and Chairman, Citizenship Project), as an innovative contribution to the understanding of the power of this new media to influence public opinion.

Kelman served as research director under Title VII of the National Defense Education Act for The Study of New Media authenticating or repudiating the feasibility of statewide televised instruction.

As a director of early television, he cut his teeth on Boomtown, a children's show starring authentic cowboy personality Rex Trailer and his sidekick Pancho, played by Richard Kilbride, a multi-talented Boston actor.

That year, as a WBZ-TV producer/director as well as head of public affairs programming, Kelman formed a career alliance with a young teaching physician from Harvard Medical School, Robert E. Fuisz, M.D.

While in London, Kelman received word that he had been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for his production at WBZ-TV Boston (1965), The Face of a Genius, The Life of Eugene O'Neill narrated by Jason Robards.

The Scopitone machine, developed in France, all the rage during the early discothèque club era, was basically a 16mm magnetic striped film jukebox projecting images on a big screen adjacent to a dance floor and bar.

Next stop, the burgeoning knowledge industry in 1968 Kelman was a principal in a publicly held corporation (Medcom, Inc.) founded by Robert E Fuisz, M.D., specializing in medical education and allied health personnel training.

Concurrently in 1979, out of experiences from shooting the annual seven-year non-fiction CBS Special The Body Human, grew the beginning of prime time reality television for NBC, Lifeline, 13 hours of real-life medical drama.

Kelman and his producing partner of KLM Films, Inc, Philip Levitan of Nashville with the expert assistance of agent Ron Yatter (a former executive with The William Morris Agency) became personal guarantors, and obtained the rights to Amy Fisher's first-hand account of her story, resulting in the NBC movie of the week, Amy Fisher: My Story, the only time in the history of television that all 3 networks, ABC, CBS, NBC aired a motion picture docudrama on the same subject within weeks of one another.

Kelman, a principal organizer of the successful opposition, was ultimately elected a Trustee under the laws of the State of New York (2005) and dubbed a founding father of the Incorporated Village of Sagaponack, the historic boundaries of the hamlet remaining intact.

Most recently, in March 2013, Kelman's early production "The Face of Genius" Academy Award Nominee Best Documentary Feature in 1965, was honored with a special 35mm screening by the UCLA Festival of Preservation before a live audience at The Billy Wilder Theater Los Angeles including a Q & A session conducted by noted film historian and critic Paul Malcolm.

From November 2016-March 2017, 18 life drawings influenced by and after the Masters of the Renaissance were on exhibit at Lotos, a private New York City club founded in 1870 dedicated to the arts & literature, with Mark Twain among its earliest members.