Allen v. Farrow Filmmakers Respond to Woody Allen Calling Documentary a ‘Shoddy Hit Piece’
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Filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, the duo behind the HBO documentary Allen v. Farrow, have responded to Woody Allen bashing their series.
Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, had declined to participate in the docuseries, which explores the allegations that the Oscar-winning director molested his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow when she was 7-years-old.
“These documentarians had no interest in the truth,” Allen’s publicist said in a statement following the premiere of Allen v. Farrow last month. “Instead, they spent years surreptitiously collaborating with the Farrows and their enablers to put together a hatchet job riddled with falsehoods. Woody and Soon-Yi were approached less than two months ago and given only a matter of days ‘to respond.’ Of course, they declined to do so.”
Allen’s rep continued, “As has been known for decades, these allegations are categorically false. Multiple agencies investigated them at the time and found that, whatever Dylan Farrow may have been led to believe, absolutely no abuse had ever taken place. It is sadly unsurprising that the network to air this is HBO—which has a standing production deal and business relationship with Ronan Farrow. While this shoddy hit piece may gain attention, it does not change the facts.”
Dick and Ziering, however, told The Daily Beast that they gave Allen two weeks to respond to the allegations made in their docuseries, as opposed to just “days.”
“Not only did they have time to comment, but keep in mind that this was during COVID, and we would have been happy to have done this interview even remotely,” Dick said. “Somebody just had to sit down in front of their computer and speak, so it was the easiest time for them to find a time and a way to do this. They had plenty of time. We would have loved to have spoken with Woody and loved to have spoken with Soon-Yi, and heard their side and their perspective.”
Ziering added, “If you had nothing to hide, and you were really being falsely maligned, wouldn’t you want to speak to journalists? What are you afraid of? We wouldn’t be able to put anything in that was false. That’s not what we do. We want to hear it, and we don’t want to get this wrong. So I don’t get it.”
Ziering also responded to Allen’s longstanding claim that Mia Farrow was a manipulative mother who coached Dylan into claiming he had sexually abused her.
“A perfect strategy is to bait and switch,” said the filmmaker. “Mia is not on trial. If you commit an offense, it doesn’t matter what everyone else around you is doing, so I just want to be wary of any narrative that starts criticizing any unrelated actions, because it’s spurious. It’s just white noise.”
Ziering added, “The best defense is a good offense, so you go on the offensive and declare the person crazy, which is what Woody did. But all of this, ‘Let’s look into her as a parent,’ that’s just misogyny and character assassination that has nothing to do with it.”
The four-part documentary series features interviews with Mia, Dylan, investigators, relatives, and other eyewitnesses, many of whom are speaking publicly about the events for the first time.
The latest episode, which largely examines police and court documents that have never been public, also includes taped phone calls between Allen and Mia. “Dylan’s a baby. How could you do that to her?” Mia says during one conversation.
The docuseries also includes home video footage shot by Mia in 1992, which shows a 7-year-old Dylan claiming Allen touched her in the attic of their Connecticut home.
At one point in the documentary, Mia indicates that she’s still “scared” of Allen and worries that “he’ll be on the attack again” after the docuseries is released.
