Documentary filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering over the past decade have blamed 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 set their sights on Dylan Farrow’s allegations of sexual abuse against her adopted father, Woody Allen.
‘Allen v. Farrow’s is a four-part documentary that launches later this month, which captures viewers in Farrow’s public experience of accusing a famous and powerful man of abuse, but also sets out details of the case not with the public.
Initially, Farrow’s story did not agree with Dick and Ziering’s usual broad investigations, but on closer inspection, the filmmakers found that they had the opportunity to discuss domestic abuse and incest, a topic that survivors constantly asked the two to to pack.
“I was haunted by these stories,” Ziering said. “This is the third track. This is what no one is talking about. ”
However, everyone is talking about Woody Allen and Mia Farrow. The one-time Hollywood power couple has been together for 12 years. They never married and kept separate residences, but made 13 films together, adopting two children (Dylan and Moses) and another father (Satchel, who changed his name to Ronan after his parents divorced). This was the discussion of the city until it collapsed in 1992. Over the course of eight months, Farrow discovered nude photos of her then-daughter Soon-Yi Previn in Allen’s apartment; that summer, 7-year-old Dylan said Allen sexually assaulted her. These accusations led to an ugly custody battle and a family that was permanently torn apart. Allen has consistently denied the allegations and after investigations in Connecticut and New York he has not been charged with a crime.
While the media has been focused on the scandal for so many years, Dick said he thinks he knows the story and was initially reluctant to dig further. “It’s been treated so extensively and a lot of our work goes into new business,” he said. ‘But when we got to it, we found that there was a lot more. We turned around because we realized that the full story never came out. ‘
The filmmakers, along with investigative producer Amy Herdy, spent three years locating court documents and police reports and conducting extensive interviews with many of the witnesses who had never spoken to the public.
The series kicks off on February 21 on HBO and features a home video shot by Mia Farrow while her children were growing up in Connecticut and audio she secretly recorded of some conversations she had with Allen. And for the first time, we see the videotape of 7-year-old Dylan, shot by Farrow in the immediate aftermath of the accusations. The band has become something of a hot button over the past two decades, characterized on the one hand as proof of her truth and on the other as proof that Farrow coached her daughter in her answers. The filmmakers are also asking questions about an important report released by the Yale Child Sexual Abuse Clinic at Yale-New Haven Hospital, in which Dylan was found unbelievable after questioning the child nine times over a seven-month period. .
Neither Allen, Soon-Yi Previn nor Moses Farrow participated in the documentary. (The majority of Farrow’s other living children did.) They did not want to comment on the series they had not yet seen.
I asked Dick and Ziering why they decided to get involved. Below are excerpts from our conversation.
For so long, this story has been portrayed as a family drama he told, and many people have said, “We will never know the truth.”
AMY DECORATION As you dig closer, you see that he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, he said, she said [whispered], he said, he said, he said, he said. But we did not know it. Nobody knew that. If you get this echo chamber from a certain perspective and a certain story, you do not realize the source. This is what was interesting when we unpacked it. And when we heard the ‘she said’ section and the ‘he said’ section, it became very interesting.
Since the #MeToo movement began, Allen has been wiped out in a number of ways: Amazon has canceled its multiple movie deal. His latest film still has not found American distribution. The first publisher of his memoirs withdrew. Some actors have said they will not work with him going forward. Why does this documentary stand out now?
DECORATION Our goal is never the offender. It’s more about us all having to understand these crimes, how we all participate in these crimes, and I mean all of us, both unknowingly and unconsciously. It’s also about how you talk about something that happens all the time in America and that no one feels comfortable about? This is not the full investigation of this. It’s one way to make people think about it.
DICK Like “On the Record”, where people had to experience what happens when someone decides to come forward and the immediate aftermath of it, it affects the experience of those involved. Therefore, it is not just about someone being accused.
Whether by the media, or by Allen himself, Farrow has long been portrayed as somewhat unstable? Was it your perception that she went into this and changed it?
DICK I just want to say that the suspicion and criticism that mothers generally place in this society is only a proof of misogyny. People like to “blame” mothers for everything. So I was very suspicious of that story from the beginning because it’s a misogynistic story – the idea of the hysterical woman, the crazy woman. This is what is expressed not only in cases of incest but also in cases of sexual assault. Hearing what made me very, very suspicious.
DECORATION There are wonderful wills [to Farrow] and people will see the home videos that Mia shot of her children throughout their lives. We received a lot of love and praise from the people we interviewed about her qualities as a mother.
Was Dylan reluctant to give up the band of hers at age 7, the band that has been at the center of this controversy for so long?
DECORATION It took Dylan a long time to feel comfortable and safe sharing the video. And once she shared it, there were parameters of whether she would be right if we actually used it. It was incremental. We do not want to contribute to the pain of someone else.
At the end of the documentary, Mia says that she’s still scared of Woody, and actually worried about what he’s going to do when he sees this series. Why then does she decide to participate? What was her goal?
DECORATION She did not want to be a part of this. She did it for her daughter, Dylan. In the interview in which you see her, she’s in my shirt. I literally had to borrow a shirt from someone else and give my shirt to her, because when she showed up, she did not want to conduct the interview, she was so unhappy. What is she wearing? I do not even remember it.
She said, “My daughter came to me and said it was important to me, and I need you to do it for me.” And she said, ‘I stand by my children. I’m going to take incoming fire. I do not know you, Amy. I do not know Kirby. I know your work. I’m excited because I did nothing. ”
In the series, many investigations are conducted into the Yale-New Haven Clinic. From the number of times the clinicians interviewed Dylan, to the fact that all the temporary interview notes of the sessions were destroyed when the final report was issued. Have you ever seen in your previous sexual abuse investigation a situation where such records were destroyed?
DICK I have not. It’s really shocking that notes would be destroyed, but that’s one of the reasons the full story never came out. If everything was transparent, we would not have made this series.
How actively did you try to reach Soon-Yi, Moses and Woody? Have you ever received any response from any of them?
DICK We definitely reached out. We did not expect them to speak. If we were to make a movie about Woody Allen’s career, he probably would not be talking to us. This did not surprise us.
Are there any threats of lawsuits or anything else from the Allen camp if you put it together?
DICK No. We are always careful with fact checking. We were meticulous about accuracy.
DECORATION As we always are. We have never had to retract a fact. It would have been legally an easier removal if we had adapted a book or done a story about someone who had already been convicted. That way you are not standing in front of a moving train. But we unfortunately run in front of moving trains. So the only thing we can save is the truth and to be extremely careful. We are not dead yet.