On March 8, a number of events are celebrating women through film, including Century: 10 women x 10 decades, a series of portraits of life in London

International Women’s Day is on March 8 and this year’s theme is Be Bold for Change. Events are happening all over London in the surrounding days and there are no shortage of ways to get involved, especially if you’re interested in film.

Chocolate Films decided to conduct the most thorough and expansive documentary study ever done on citizens in the capital. Every Thursday 1000 Londoners releases a three minute film about a new person, showing just how diverse the city we live in is.

In honour of International Women’s Day, they are screening Century: 10 women x 10 decades, a series of shorts celebrating womanhood in London from the ages of 0 to 100.

The “Century” project follows Dame Jocelyn Barrow, knighted for her work in race relations. Founding the Commission for Racial Equality, she also persuaded Oxford Street retailers to allow BAME people to work on the shop floor rather than the stockroom.

Paralymic gold medal winner Susie Rodgers MBE and author of Girl With a Pearl Earring Tracy Chevalier feature as well as Jacqueline, a wild swimmer, Jasmine, a young mum and “Social Housing not Social Cleansing” activist, Claire, a body builder and eight-year-old tennis player Jenna, among others.

The event has been curated by Rachel Wang, one of the founders of 1000 Londoners, who is “passionate about empowering women and offering new audiences unique and fascinating human stories that provoke discussion and positive action” .

She has brought together rarely seen archive footage of women in the capital over the past century and is hosting a panel discussion about “Women and Ambition” with Diane Abbott MP, singer-songwriter Kate Dimbleby and Wynny Mehra, one of the film subjects who has documented her love for travel over forty years.

Following a run of previously sold out screenings at the Hackney Attic and Brixton Ritzy, the portraits return to the Attic with tickets costing £5 from picturehouses.com/cinema/Hackney_Picturehouse.

There are a number of other opportunities to celebrate women through film.

The Evelyn Oldfield Unit at London Metropolitan University is running a screening and discussion surrounding the challenges facing women seeking asylum in the UK.

In 2013, Body image activist Taryn Brumfitt posted an unconventional before-and-after picture and sparked an international conversation about women’s attitudes towards their own bodies. The Holloway Road Odeon is showing the documentary that she made in the aftermath, talking to a range of women around the world.