CSIF encourages the creation of local work with our production stream and exhibits it in member night screenings, festivals, themed calls, and exchanges. We also show non-local Canadian and international films. By screening local and international works side-by-side, we create a context in which local artists are viewed with the same high standards as international ones. Our exhibition of high quality local, national, and international media artworks also increases public awareness and dialogue about film as an art form. Our production and programming policies are inclusive, which ensures that local work and the work that is imported to Calgary contains a range of perspectives, cultural, and social backgrounds. Screening such works in our regular programming encourages diversity in everything that we do, and increases dialogue about minority media arts; it supports the validity of their work in their particular genre as well as the place of their work in the general context of film.