Woody Allen refuted allegations in the HBO documentary Allen v Farrow that he sexually assaulted his daughter Dylan in 1992, calling the series “a work of the ax with falsehoods”.
Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter that filmmakers Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick “spent years with the Farrows and their enablers to put together an ax with fakes.” . .
They added: ‘As has been known for decades, these allegations are extremely false. Several agencies investigated them at the time and found that, regardless of what Dylan Farrow apparently led to believe, absolutely no abuse took place. ”
In a 2018 TV interview, Dylan Farrow denied that she was ‘brainwashed’ or ‘coached’ to make allegations against Allen.
Allen v Farrow, which aired the first of four episodes on Sunday on HBO in the US, is described by Ziering and Dick as an investigation into the allegations that emerged during the surveillance battle following Allen’s divorce from Mia Farrow in 1992. Ziering also denies their film was a collaboration … with [Dylan Farrow] or the family ”.
There has been no reaction from the Farrows so far to the allegations Allen and Previn made about the documentary.
Allen has consistently denied any allegations of sexual abuse against Dylan Farrow, who was investigated in 1992-93 by state police in Connecticut, the Yale New Haven Hospital Child Sexual Abuse Clinic and the New York Department of Social Services; no one concluded that sexual assault took place.
Mia Farrow and her son Ronan appear in Allen v Farrow, while Allen and Previn refused to participate. According to the statement, Allen and Previn were approached ‘less than two months ago and given a few days’ to respond’. Of course, they did not want to do that. Dylan’s brother Moses, who defended Allen against the allegations, apparently did not want to appear in the film either.
Ziering and Dick have previously collaborated on a series of hard-hitting documentaries on sexual abuse, including the Oscar-nominated The Invisible War, which focused on rape in the U.S. military, and The Hunting Ground, on sex assault on university campuses.