Co-Director’s Note

When I was a kid, growing up just south of Vancouver, British Columbia, my maternal grandfather’s name wasn’t often mentioned. I knew he and my mother, Marla Mayson, were very close, and I knew he was originally from Toronto, Ontario, and had served in World War II with the Canadian Army. Mom had shown me his framed service portrait and his medals, as well as some photos with his army buddies. I even took his portrait and medals to school once for a show-and-tell. There were, and still are a couple of photos of him around our house, but most of them are in albums or in boxes stored away somewhere.

Every once in a while I would ask my Mom to tell me stories about my grandfather. You see, I never knew the man. He passed away in 1988, and I was born in 1998. I would learn that he eventually rose to be an executive for a company called Spar Aerospace Limited, the company that built the Canadarm for NASA’s Space Shuttles, often touted as Canada’s greatest technological contribution to the world. This would be all I knew about him for years. And his name; Ireal.

Shortly after university, I began researching into the work that my grandfather did. After the war, Ireal A. Mayson studied Engineering Physics at the University of Toronto, and would go on to work in electronics and aerospace. As a Vice-President of RCA Canada, he oversaw aspects of production in virtually all of Canada’s early satellites, and would continue this work with Spar Aerospace when the latter bought RCA’s satellite and communications division. He played a vital role in the development of Canada’s satellite industry, bringing Canadian technology to the world, and helping lay the groundwork for how we communicate today. Ireal’s greatest achievement however, came in 1982, when after months and months of negotiations, led by Ireal and his team, Embratel awarded Spar Aerospace the $165 million-dollar Prime Contract to build Brazil's first domestic telecommunications satellite system; Brasilsat.

I pondered the idea of telling Ireal’s story. I’ve always enjoyed documentary shorts and I settled on this format as the ideal one to tell it. But what would propel this story? The universe answered, and after discovering a cassette tape with thirty-minutes of Ireal’s voice on it, numerous pieces of memorabilia, contacts of his former colleagues and employees, and Ireal’s ashes—still in a box and never scattered—I knew I had all the pieces.

Finding Ireal will capture my journey of discovery and connection with the grandfather I never knew. Aided by my mother, Marla, and a dedicated crew, we will trace my grandfather’s story, his legacy, and make known his accomplishments, bookended by an ultimate and rather ambitious goal; launching his ashes into space.

- Aaron M. Mayson Smail