Edward (Big Ed) Johnson is not physically large. In fact Mr. Johnson, who is serving a life sentence for gang-related homicide, looks wispy standing next to some of his fellow inmates. The origin of his nickname is likely wrapped up in the fact, as a convict at Donaldson Correctional Facility, Alabama’s highest security prison, he was a gang-leader in a prison populated by violent criminals.

That is, until taking part in the Vipassana Buddhist meditation program that forms the centerpiece of the documentary The Dhamma Brothers.

At just the moment when the drag of winter seems never-ending, a light is shining on the horizon — a projectionist’s light.

You will not experience a more independent film at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival than Surfwise, a 93-minute recounting of the Paskowitz family saga. See it.

By turns hilarious and horrific, the film chronicles the 50-year social experiment of a surfing Jewish family.

Annual membership is strongly encouraged: For $40 a year you get half-price admission into any of the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival screenings — winter or summer (every Wednesday night).

Individual tickets are available at the door, $5 for members or $10 for nonmembers.

Weekend passes are available at Island Entertainment: $50 for members, $100 for nonmembers.

Winter Walks Program Is

Set for North Tabor Farm

The Vineyard Conservation Society Winter Walks Program will feature a free guided walk at North Tabor Farm in Chilmark on Sunday, March 9 at 1:30 p.m. The walk leaders will be Matthew Dix and Rebecca Miller, the family farmers who have been farming North Tabor Farm for the last fifteen years.

North Tabor Farm is located on North Road in Chilmark. Watch for VCS signs.

Calling All Artists

Preparations have begun for this year’s Annual Friends of Family Planning Art Show Benefit, which is scheduled for Memorial Day weekend from May 23 to 25. The event gala on May 22 is known to be a great showcase for new work of all kinds.

Show organizers are inviting new artists to participate. Paintings, all media and furniture, pottery, three-dimensional art, jewelry and weaving are encouraged.

Cook Moroccan

Dinner goes global this week when Jan Buhrman of Kitchen Porch Catering in Chilmark demystifies Moroccan cooking on Wednesday, March 12, at 5:30 p.m. at Chilmark library. The title of her free cooking demonstration is Moroccan Staples and Spices: Preserved Lemons and Tagines.

Island Theatre Workshop’s second annual one-act festival opens Friday, March 14, at the Katharine Cornell Theatre.

Three directors will offer a program of four plays, all of which look at life with both humor and sadness.

Lee Fierro will be presenting two shows: Aria da Capa, by Edna St.Vincent Millay, and Extensions, by Murray Schisgal.

Vigorous environmental protection, in the form of a revised bylaw, was approved for five ancient ways by a throng of voters in Edgartown’s Old Whaling Church last night.

The popular vote was not swayed by the impassioned and sustained pleas of several members of the Hall family, whose 74 acres of property is crossed by several of the paths. Voters approved the bylaw by a margin of 199 to 47.

Doors open at 6 p.m. for the opening reception at the Chilmark Community Center.

7 p.m. Dhamma Brothers (documentary, 76 mins, USA 2007)

Thomas Bena: “When I sat down to watch this film I was very skeptical ... a few minutes in I was mesmerized, and I stayed that way for the next hour! The men in this movie just blew my heart wide open.”