The seventh annual documentary week film festival arrives next week, hosted by the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society. The festival runs from August 2 to 6 and features four, full-length documentaries and a short film.

“Each year I try to develop a program that sort of is both enlightening, educational and also entertaining,” said Richard Paradise, founder and director of the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society.

Documentary week doesn’t follow a common theme, Mr. Paradise said, adding that he tries to do a combination of light and serious films.

“I tried to mix films that have some weight to them that talked about various important issues, but then also films that could be perceived as entertaining. We just try to get the best possible American documentaries of the past year.”

Following the films will be Q&A’s with filmmakers or experts on the subject matter.

“We normally have . . . what I call a film plus one experience, it’s the film but then there’s the dialogue, afterwards.”

The festival opens Monday, August 2 with Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, the legendary chef, traveler and writer.

“We’re also lucky that Dawn Davis, who is actually the first African American woman to be the editor of Bon Appétit Magazine, agreed to be our speaker after the Anthony Bourdain documentary,” Mr. Paradise said. “And she was a personal friend of Anthony Bourdain so it’s not that she’s just the editor of the magazine, but she knew Anthony.”

Rise Again: Tulsa and the Red Summer, by seasonal Vineyarder Dawn Porter, screens on August 3. It tells the story the Tulsa race massacre of 1921 though the story of Washington Post reporter DeNeen Brown as she chronicles the discovery of a mass grave there.

A dual-portrait documentary of Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams screens on August 4 and Rita Moreno is the focus on August 5.

The documentary short film R.I.P. T-Shirts closes the festival on August 6. The movie follows a T-shirt shop owner in Washington DC, where families of youths killed by gun violence visit to commission wearable tributes to their loved ones. After the screening, local filmmakers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner will host a discussion.

For tickets and more information, visit mvfilmsociety.com.