”BEST U.S. SHORT,” Avignon/New York Film Festival, NY

“GOLD REMI AWARD," Houston International Film Festival, TX

“PREMIO INFORMAZIONE,” Tam Tam Festival, Naples, Italy

"PLATINUM BEST OF SHOW," Aurora Awards, Salt Lake City, UT

"GRAND FESTIVAL AWARD IN THE ARTS," Berkeley Film Festival, CA

"BEST EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILM,"
Big Apple & Long Island Film Festivals, NY

"ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR MIXED FORM,"
Putnam Valley Film Festival, NY

"EDITING AWARD"
2008 Chicago Short Film Festival

"This award-winning 1925 poem — praised by William Carlos Williams and aptly called 'magisterial' by historian Howard Zinn—was recorded in 1969 in the voice of its author, Eli Siegel …. 'Hot Afternoons' ruminates on a time and a place, connecting them poetically with the entire world of people, events, and ideas and creating in effect an eternal moment of the spirit …. What might not at first come to mind is that the film helps make poetry more accessible to today's young viewer. As you 'read' the film's images, the words of the poetry seem to become more palpable to the ear, beyond the distinction lent them by Siegel's voice. A lovely short film for audiences from young adult and up." — Library Journal, January 2008  

"Ken Kimmelman's reproduction, on film, of Eli Siegel's magisterial poem, is an extraordinary achievement. It matches, in its visual beauty, the elegance of  Siegel's words, and adds the dimension of stunning imagery to an already profound work of art." —Howard Zinn, historian

"Eli Siegel was one of my early heroes. I first read 'Hot Afternoons' when I was 30, traveling by train from New York to San Francisco in 1951. And your film is like a newsreel of what I saw…the small lost towns, the wide prairies echoing with cries of Indians, the red sunsets—a mythic west. Thanks for preserving it for all of us."
— Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet

"Poet Eli Siegel reads his 1925 award-winning poem, which describes how a hot summer afternoon in Montana is related to the entire world, including its people and heritage. The visuals include…live-action footage accompanied by archival stills and paintings, resulting in a gently paced visual montage that superbly blends with Siegel's narration….Useful in high-school or college poetry or film classes."
— Booklist, February 2006

"A beautiful mixture of poetry and picture and imagination. A beautiful use of color. The words and pictures work so well together. The poem is beautifully constructed and beautifully read. You see the imagination flowing all through it."   —Gordon Parks, photographer

"I have finally had the chance to view your film, and it is splendid! Bravo."   —Arlynn Fishbaugh, Executive Director, Montana Arts Council

"I saw the film—it is a great film!"   —Michel Coulombe, Film Critic National Film Board of Canada

"The Indian loved it!"  —Blackhorse Lowe, Filmmaker, Navaho

"It is truly an extraordinary film and from my perspective one of few films that     actually enhances the poignancy of a great poem….What you have accomplished is nothing short of transformative for me personally: I am increasingly reading poetry and believe that particular form of creativity has become all the more essential to our lives during these terribly troubling times. In that sense, 'Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana' is beautiful and memorable."    —Dr. Clement Alexander Price, Historian; Director, Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience, Rutgers University

Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana [15:30] is based on the 1925 Nation prize-winning poem by Eli Siegel, founder of the philosophy Aesthetic Realism (AestheticRealism.org).  Recorded by the poet, the film is a dramatic montage combining photographs, live-action, and special effects, to show how a hot afternoon in Montana is related to the whole world. It so deeply honors the earth—its land, its history, its people. The poet, William Carlos Williams, placed the great meaning of Hot Afternoons when he wrote:

"I say definitely that that single poem, out of a thousand others written in the past quarter century, secures our place in the cultural world."
—Something to Say (New Directions, 1985)

Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana is the title poem of Eli Siegel's first book of poetry (Definition Press), nominated in 1958 for the National Book Award. In a note to the poem, the author wrote:

"Very early the wideness of Montana on the map had taken me…A thing the poem says is that from the fact that a hot afternoon has been in Montana, you can come—without falling over yourself—to so much, so much else."

Televised on PBS stations across the country and England, the film has been the Official Selection of numerous film festivals nationally and internationally.

Hot Afternoons is intended for general audiences from the ages of eight to 80, and beyond—for theatres, television, schools and universities, libraries, and community organizations.

An Imagery Film, Ltd . release (www.imageryfilm.com). Produced & Directed by Ken Kimmelman; Executive Producer, Robert Murphy; Visuals by Molten Lava: Jennifer Basnyat; Sound by Bernie Hayden; Music by Edward Green. Hot Afternoons is under fiscal sponsorship of the International Documentary Association (IDA), a not-for-profit 501(c)3.