Ashley Hale, “Research for On Film Inc Abstract”
Mentor: Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece, English and Film Studies
Oral Presentation Block 2

An important idea we focus on in film studies scholarship is how cultural understandings of films can evolve. In this specific research project, we are focusing on discovering factual information about On Film Inc and one of its head filmmakers, Tracy Ward, so that we can reframe the accepted understanding of its film The Relaxed Wife. Within the film history academic community, The Relaxed Wife has been misinterpreted as a film telling wives that their core purpose is taking care of their husbands. Through our research into the film and the studio that created it, we want to learn more about its background so that we can present it not solely as a product of corporate interest, but as a feminist and artistic statement as well. The Relaxed Wife is an industrial film, which is a film created by a company or film studio with the purpose of being educational. Usually, these films were sponsored by a company and had an advertising element to their narrative too. To fulfill this aim, we are searching UWM library databases and university archives for information that gives us a deeper understanding of The Relaxed Wife, On Film Inc, Tracy Ward, and Atarax- the medicine advertised in the film- so that it can be written about with a greater understanding. Through this research, we will learn more about the history and evolution of medical advertisements on film. But furthermore, this research will set a precedent for media analysis. Our understanding of media is always changing and evolving, and we should encourage reevaluating media over time. This research also teaches us that just because one understanding of a piece of media is that academically accepted understanding that does not mean that it cannot be challenged or changed.