Ah, Francois, we hardly knew ye.

More than six years have already passed since Monsieur Macerola first made himself at home in the office marked ‘executive director’ at Telefilm Canada. Considering the loop-de-loop trajectory TFC has been on since then, it’s a testament to Macerola’s determination to note that he’s not only survived, but thrived. And, while reflecting on the end of his mandate in July, he is still finessing the latest in a series of significant accomplishments.

These are redoubtable, and they include: Canada Feature Film Fund; soon-to-be rebooted Multimedia Fund; fine-tuned Equity Investment Program; mint green revisions to treaty coproduction guidelines; huge response to the Low Budget Independent Feature Film Assistance Program; and the first friend-to-women mentorship prize awarded to a man by Women in Film and Television – Montreal.

There were also redoubtable setbacks. 1996 budget-slashing, consultants’ reports questioning the need for Telefilm in TV, an advisory panel pondering the role of public funders in feature films, dissing over too much project input, calls for status quo minimum guarantees, calls against, and then again, Cinar, Cinar, Cinar.

When you navigate the steeplechase course amid government purveyors of tax dollars, the civil service, mixed-funding broadcasters, producers on an ascending power curve, every step is fraught with peril.

Everyone wants a piece of you. Approve a project, and you are a fast friend until the next funding round. Say no, argue flawed script, poor financing, inexperienced production team, and the charge of ‘Machiavelli’ is thrown at your head. Turn down projects, they cry anti-nationalist, anti-federalist, anti-West Coast, anti-East Coast, anti-artist, anti-anti.

And then you wonder, ‘Are all these lovely testaments to my achievements (see report p. 29) only about the money after all?’

Stop right there. Look instead at the sources of the commentary and the nature of the remarks, which go far beyond mere dollars-for-titles to the man who led the agency who put the successes in place. Looked at the development of diverse voices, of regional strengths, of cultural product that would play in Pictou, Peoria, and Paris, too.

So many of our commentators remarked upon charm, style, finesse, strategic vision. It’s great to have grace under pressure, but where would Telefilm and the fundamental principles of funding Canada-style be without the tenacity that passion forges? Probably they’d have gone down Highway 61 to the Big Easy. And while that may improve the box office, it wouldn’t matter a damn if we couldn’t call it Canadian in the end.

Alora, Francois, for that tenacity, for the warm, knowing smile and the accessibility, for the national sensibility, for the vision of what the industry needs today, but also tomorrow – for all of this, merci and ciao. Given the predictions that you will go forward in this community, it’s just as well that we say ‘ciao’ not only when we walk away, but also when we meet again.