Ontology Vs. The Ontic, a video essay workshop by Rhea Dillon offered by Cassandra Press, takes a dialogic approach to workshopping cinematic means of answering existential questions that must be asked of the society we currently live in and would like to live in. In lieu of the uprising we find ourselves in, students were asked to engage in rigorous inquiry in order to turn, collectively process, and simultaneously redefine what anti-racist abolitionist praxis looks like today. Over the course of six weeks, each student created a video essay developed through conversations held in class.

The following is a discussion around these concepts and pedagogy between Kandis Williams, artist, editor-in-chief and publisher of Cassandra Press and artist and writer Rhea Dillon.