The arts and lots of them feature in HELEN MUSA’s latest Arts in the City column, a weekly wrap of what’s on where and when.

Michael Simic’s new band, Mikelangelo & the Long Lost Friends derives from his adopted hometown of Braidwood, with Jake Annetts on bass, Steve Maher on keyboard and guitar, Bruce Rose on guitar, Ben Willson on drums and Simic on vocals and guitar, they’ll be at Smiths Alternative, Civic, March 8.

International Women’s Day will be marked with stories and celebrations about the women we know. Manning Clark House, 11 Tasmania Circle, Forrest, March 8.

An International Women’s Day show will include performances by Chamaeleon Collective, 4 Me Dancers, Project Dust, members of Canberra Dance Theatre’s GOLD Company, Rachael Hilton, Zsuzsi Soboslay, Somebody’s Aunt, Liz Lea and Elizabeth Cameron Dalman. QL2 Dance theatre, Gorman Arts Centre, March 8.

The multilingual poetry open mic night gives a chance to share the languages Canberrans speak or are teaching/learning. Smith’s Alternative, March 10.

Concerts

• Five-piece band Blue Grassy Knoll is pairing with onscreen works of Buster Keaton with three banjo-fuelled live scores for Sherlock, Jr., One Week and Cops. The Street Theatre, March 6.
• Flamenco dance and music feature in Bandaluzia Flamenco’s new show. The Street Theatre, March 8.
• The next Merry Muse will be a special show celebrating Women in Song for International Women’s Day. Canberra Irish Club, Weston, March 9.
• The Song Company will perform late Mediaeval works, Renaissance polyphony from Spain and Portugal, with songs by contemporary Australian composers Anne Cawrse, Joseph Twist and Paul Stanhope. Wesley Music Centre, March 9.
• Wesley Music Centre lunchtime concert series presents pianist Sam Row performing Frédéric Chopin’s third piano sonata, a dramatic work of the romantic era in four movements. March 12.

Galleries

• Bernard Ollis’ newest solo exhibition, Time Travelling, is intended to transport viewers across eras and places, blending past, present and future with his signature whimsical style. Aarwun Gallery, Gold Creek, March 7-30.
• Not Quite Square by Gayle Stockley is an exhibition of minimalist, geometric oil paintings and linear sculptures evolved following a seven-year period making relief sculpture using bushfire blackened casuarina. ANCA Gallery, 1 Rosevear Place Dickson, March 12-30.

Screen

• Ocean Film Festival, collection of short films from around the globe documents the beauty and power of the ocean. National Film and Sound Archive until March 6.
• Pinocchio, the classic Disney tale of a wooden puppet with a lie-detector nose who dreams of becoming a real boy. National Film and Sound Archive , March 8.
• The Bjork & Merlin Sheldrake film Fungi: The Web of Life, a podcast told by scientists, farmers and communities uncovering the critical importance of the hidden life within soil for our food security, health and climate. Palace Electric Cinema, March 11.