Documentary filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering have spent the past decade illuminating accusations of sexual abuse in institutions such as the military, in “The Invisible War” (2012); colleges, in “The Hunting Ground” (2015); and the music industry, in “On the Record” (2020). Now they have turned to Dylan Farrow’s decades-old allegations of sexual abuse against his adoptive father, Woody Allen.
“Allen v. Farrow “is a four-part documentary premiering later this month that takes viewers to Farrow’s public experience of accusing a famous and powerful man of abuse, but also presents details of the case that were not shared with the public.
Initially, Farrow’s story did not match Dick and Ziering’s broad-based investigations, but on closer examination, the filmmakers found that it offered them a chance to discuss family child abuse and incest, a topic that survivors always asked the two to approach.
“I was haunted by these stories,” said Ziering. “This is the third track. That’s what nobody talks about. “
Everyone, however, talks about Woody Allen and Mia Farrow. The former powerful Hollywood couple has been together for 12 years. Never getting married and maintaining separate residences, they made 13 films together, adopted two children (Dylan and Moses) and fathered another (Satchel, who changed his name to Ronan after his parents separated). They were the talk of the town until it all came crashing down in 1992. Over the course of eight months, Farrow discovered photos of his college-age daughter Soon-Yi Previn in Allen’s apartment; that summer, 7-year-old Dylan said Allen had sexually assaulted her. These charges led to an ugly fight for custody and a permanently divided family. Allen systematically denied the charges and, after investigations in Connecticut and New York, he was not charged with any crime.
With the media focused directly on the scandal for so many years, Dick said he thought he knew the story and was initially reluctant to go any further. “It has been covered so extensively and much of our work goes into new cases,” he said. “But as we started, we found that there was much more. We spin because we realize that the full story has never been released. “
The filmmakers, along with investigative producer Amy Hurdy, spent three years tracking down court documents and police reports, and conducting extensive interviews with many of the witnesses who had never spoken to the public before.
Scheduled to begin February 21 on HBO, the series features home video filmed by Mia Farrow as her children grew up in Connecticut and audio she secretly recorded from some conversations she had with Allen. And for the first time, we see Dylan’s 7-year-old videotape account, filmed by Farrow shortly after the accusations. The tape has become something of a hot button over the past two decades, characterized on the one hand as proof of its veracity and on the other hand as proof that Farrow trained his daughter in his responses. The filmmakers also raised questions about a crucial report issued by Yale’s Child Sexual Abuse Clinic at Yale-New Haven Hospital, which found Dylan incredible after interviewing the child nine times over a seven-month period.
Not even Allen, Soon-Yi Previn and Moses Farrow participated in the documentary. (Most of Farrow’s other living children do.) They declined to comment in response to the series, which they have yet to see.
I asked Dick and Ziering why they decided to get involved. Below are edited excerpts from our conversation.
For a long time, this story was portrayed as a family drama he said – she said, with many people declaring, “We will never know the truth”.
AMY ZIERING When you go closer, you see it is he said, said, said, said, said, said, said, said [whispered], he said, he said, he said, he said. But we didn’t know that. Nobody knew that. When you are getting this echo chamber from a certain perspective and a certain narrative, you are not realizing the source. That’s what was interesting when we unzipped it. And when we started to hear the “she said” part and checking the facts the “he said” part, it was extremely interesting.
Since the beginning of the #MeToo movement, Allen has been ostracized in several ways: Amazon canceled his contract for a multi-image film. His latest film has not yet found distribution in the United States. The first editor of his memoirs gave up. Some actors have said that they will not work with him in the future. Why release this documentary now?
ZIERING Our goal is never about the perpetrator. It is more about how we all understand these crimes, understanding the way we are all complicit in these crimes and I mean all of us, whether intentionally or not. Is it also about how you talk about something that happens all the time in America and that nobody is comfortable with? This is not the full exploration of this. It is a way to get people to start thinking about it.
DICK As in “On the Record”, in which people were able to experience what happens when a person decides to perform and the immediate result, this enters the experience of the people involved. That is why it is not just someone who is accused.
Whether by the media or Allen himself, has Farrow long been described as somewhat unstable? Was that your perception of her getting into it and has that changed?
DICK I just want to say that the mistrust and criticism of mothers in general in this society are just evidence of misogyny. People like to “blame” mothers for everything. So, from the beginning, I was very suspicious of this narrative because it is a misogynist narrative – the idea of the hysterical woman, the crazy woman. This is what is disclosed not only in cases of incest, which is done quite often, but also in cases of sexual assault. Hearing this made me very, very suspicious.
ZIERING There are incredible wills [to Farrow] and people will see the home videos Mia filmed from her children throughout her life. We received a lot of love and praise from the people we interviewed about her qualities as a mother.
Was Dylan reluctant to give you her tape at age 7, the tape that has been at the center of this controversy for so long?
ZIERING It took a long time for Dylan to feel comfortable and safe to share that video. And once she shared it, there were parameters as to whether she would be okay if we actually used it. It was incremental. We don’t intend to contribute to anyone’s pain.
At the end of the documentary, Mia says that she is still scared of Woody, actually worried about what he will do when he sees this series. Why, then, did she decide to participate? What was your goal?
ZIERING She didn’t want to be a part of this. She did this for her daughter, Dylan. In fact, in the interview you saw her, she is on my shirt. I literally had to borrow someone else’s shirt and give her my shirt because when she showed up, she didn’t want to do the interview, she was very unhappy. What was she wearing? I don’t even remember.
She said: “My daughter came to me, said that this is important to me and I need you to do this for me”. And she said, “I defend my children. I will receive incoming fire. I don’t know you, Amy. I don’t know Kirby. I know your work. I was criticized for doing nothing. ”
In the series, there is much scrutiny placed at the Yale-New Haven clinic. From the number of times doctors interviewed Dylan to the fact that all contemporary interview notes from these sessions were destroyed when the final report was issued. In your previous sexual abuse investigations, have you ever seen a situation where notes like this were destroyed?
DICK I had not. It is really shocking that the notes have been destroyed, but that is one of the reasons why the full story was never published. If everything were transparent, we would not have done this series.
How hard did you try to reach Soon-Yi, Moses and Woody? Have you gotten any response from any of them?
DICK We definitely reached out. We didn’t expect them to speak. If we were making a film about Woody Allen’s career, he probably wouldn’t speak to us. This did not surprise us.
Were there threats from processes or anything else from the Allen field while you were putting this together?
DICK No. We always take care to check the facts. We have been scrupulous about accuracy.
ZIERING As we always are. We never had to portray a fact. It would have been easier, legally, if we adapted a book or made a story about someone who has already been convicted. That way, you are not in front of a moving train. But in fact, we ran in front of moving trains, unfortunately. So the only thing that can save us is the truth and be extremely careful. We haven’t died yet.