Shortly after the premiere of the first episode of “Allen v. Farrow”, a series of HBO documentaries that reexamine Dylan Farrow’s decades-old allegations of sexual abuse against filmmaker Woody Allen, his adoptive father, an Allen spokesman released. a statement on Sunday night criticizing the series, calling it a “poor quality hit piece”.
Allen’s sister, Letty Aronson, sent the statement – attributed to a spokesman – shortly after the first episode aired, on behalf of Allen and Soon-Yi Previn, the filmmaker’s wife and Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter. In 1992, Ms. Farrow, Mr. Allen’s longtime girlfriend, learned about the relationship between Mr. Allen and Mrs. Previn when Ms. Previn was a first-year university student. This relationship is also the subject of analysis in the four-part documentation.
Neither Allen nor Ms. Previn participated in the series, but it does include audio excerpts from Allen’s recent memories, “Apropos of Nothing”.
“These documentarians had no interest in the truth,” said the statement. “Instead, they spent years surreptitiously collaborating with the Farrows and their facilitators to put together an ax job full of falsehoods.”
Episode 1 includes extensive interviews with Mia Farrow and Dylan Farrow, who accused Allen of sexual assault when she was 7. It also included interviews with family and friends who said that even before August 4, 1992 – the day Dylan Farrow said that Allen beat her – they witnessed Allen’s behavior towards their daughter that they considered inappropriate.
Allen has long denied the abuse allegations, arguing that Mia Farrow instructed Dylan to make the accusations after learning about his relationship with Mrs. Previn.
In Sunday’s statement, Mr. Allen continued to deny the charges.
“As has been known for decades, these claims are categorically false,” said the statement. “Several agencies investigated them at the time and found that, regardless of what Dylan Farrow may have been led to believe, absolutely no abuse had occurred.”
In subsequent episodes, the series raises questions about one of these investigations, in particular: a 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-year period. years old. period of the month. According to the series, all contemporary interview notes from these sessions were destroyed when the final report was published.
Prosecutors in Connecticut, where Dylan Farrow says Allen sexually assaulted her, refused to prosecute Allen in 1993. The state attorney said he did this to save Dylan from the trauma of a trial, but that he believed she had been molested.
The statement said Allen and Previn were approached about the documentary less than two months ago and “only had a few days” to respond. He also said it was “unfortunately not surprising” that HBO was showing the series, considering a production deal it made with Ronan Farrow, brother of Dylan Farrow, who spoke in support of his sister, including in the series. (Mr. Farrow, an investigative journalist who has reported extensively on sexual misconduct, has an agreement with HBO to create special investigative documentaries, although he was not on the “Allen v. Farrow” production team.)
Spokesmen for the documentary and HBO did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.