It was the summer of 1974 and John and Judy Belushi pulled up to the Woods Hole ferry terminal with a guidebook, a sense of adventure and no ferry reservation. The two were working for National Lampoon at the time and were enjoying a real vacation for once in New England.

Last month documentary filmmaker Len Morris of Vineyard Haven accepted the 2012 Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor from the U.S. Department of Labor at a ceremony in Washington D.C. But Mr. Morris does not have the luxury of basking in the afterglow of the award ceremony. His Kenyan Schoolhouse program, now in its tenth year, is currently putting 34 former child laborers and street children through secondary school.

On Wednesday, August 10, at 5 p.m. there will be a screening of the short film The Barber of Birmingham at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven. The film is part of the ninth annual Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival taking place here on the Island, beginning today, August 9, and running through Saturday, August 13.

After the polling irregularities in Florida in the 2000 Presidential election, which saw George W. Bush come to office, David Earnhart did nothing. But when it was repeated in 2004, he could not let it pass again.

“A lot of people were angry in 2004,” Mr. Earnhart said this week from his office in Nashville. “But where most everybody else moved on, I didn’t.”