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Column: HBO's 'Allen v. Farrow' digs into the details behind the headlines

San Diego Union-Tribune - 2/26/2021

There are many, many talking heads featured in "Allen v. Farrow," HBO's new documentary series looking at allegations that Woody Allen molested his adopted 7-year-old daughter, Dylan Farrow, in 1992. In their four-part series, Oscar-nominated filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering talk to film critics, forensic psychologists, family-law experts, babysitters, family members, family friends and people involved with the two main investigations into the accusations against Allen.

It is a large and well-informed collection of experts, but in the end, everyone is there to support one story. And as the film makes clear in its first few minutes, that story belongs to Dylan Farrow.

"For the longest time, I've been trying to set the record straight," Dylan says. "Because whatever you think you know, it's just the tip of the iceberg."

She is right about that. While the abuse allegations have been the subject of multiple investigations, a custody battle, and nearly three decades of news coverage and public speculation, "Allen v. Farrow" features a mountain of information that never made it to the press or to the zeitgeist water cooler.

During their multiyear investigation, Dick, Ziering and producer Amy Herdy unearthed legal documents that had been in storage for decades and police reports that had never been discussed publicly. They interviewed witnesses who had never spoken to the public. They were also given permission to show the wrenching home video that Dylan's mother, Mia Farrow, made in the days following the accusation, where Dylan describes what happened on the day in question. It is the first time the video has been shown anywhere.

If you are already convinced that Allen is innocent, and that the allegations were Farrow's way of exacting revenge for Allen's affair with Farrow's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn (which started when Soon-Yi was 21 and Allen was 56), "Allen v. Farrow" probably won't change your mind. An on-screen statement at the end of the final episode reveals that Allen and Soon-Yi (who were married in 1997) never responded to the filmmakers' request for an interview. Neither did Allen and Farrow's adopted son Moses Farrow, who has defended Allen and accused Farrow of being a bully and of coaching his siblings to hate Allen.

All four episodes also include on-screen disclaimers stating that Allen denies ever having been sexually inappropriate or abusive with Dylan. After the first episode aired on Feb. 21, Allen and Soon-Yi Previn released a statement denying the allegations and calling the series "a shoddy hit piece."

With the exception of archival TV interviews and news conferences and excerpts from the audiobook version of Allen's 2020 autobiography "Apropos of Nothing," the documentary doesn't include any voices from Allen's camp. But that doesn't mean it is one-dimensional. Over its four thoughtful, well-sourced installments, "Allen v. Farrow" goes deep and it goes wide.

On the subject of Dylan's allegations, the film takes a detailed look at the seven-month inquiry by a team of child abuse investigators at the Yale-New Haven Hospital, the investigations by the Connecticut State Police and the New York City Child Welfare Administration, as well as the custody battle between Allen and Farrow.

If all you remember from all of these investigations is that the Yale-New Haven report concluded that Allen did not abuse Dylan and that Farrow may have coached her, the filmmakers bring in experts, documents and context. They interviewed psychiatrists and prosecutors who question the Yale-New Haven team's methods, including the fact that the contemporaneous interview notes were destroyed. (People from Yale-New Haven also declined to be interviewed for the documentary.)

The filmmakers interviewed Connecticut state's attorney Frank Maco on his decision not to press charges. Maco says he believed that Dylan had been molested, but he didn't feel he could put a fragile 7-year-old on the stand. They also obtained notes and files from New York City Child Welfare caseworker Paul Williams, who found Dylan's story credible but was fired before he could complete the investigation. (He later sued the city of New York, and the judge gave him his job back, along with back pay.)

Then there is the custody battle, which began eight days after the alleged molestation, when Allen sued Mia Farrow for custody of Dylan, Moses and their younger brother, Ronan. The judge ruled in Farrow's favor, saying Allen's behavior was "grossly inappropriate and measures must be taken to protect (Dylan)." He denied Allen visitation rights with Dylan.

Ziering and Dick also look at the big cultural and societal picture surrounding this high-profile case. The film examines the contrast between Allen's charming, fumbling persona and his powerful grip on the media, which gave him a great deal of control over the abuse narrative. It takes a dive into Allen's writing archives to reveal that his focus on young female characters and May-December relationships is less a tired trope than serious obsession. Vox film critic Alissa Wilkinson wonders if it may have also been Allen's way of grooming moviegoers to accept a predilection he had already.

Regardless of who they interview or what topics they explore, the filmmakers always return to the articulate, vulnerable Dylan, and everything that built up under the tip of that very public iceberg.

We hear about how Allen went from doting on Dylan to becoming fixated on her in a way that made friends, fellow parents and the family's psychologist uncomfortable. How her childhood went from idyllic to scary. We hear how she still feels responsible for the explosion that blew up her family.

But we also hear about the comfort and courage she drew from speaking out, particularly after her 2017 #MeToo-inspired op-ed for the Los Angeles Times resulted in the avalanche of support that had been such a long time coming. After the op-ed, multiple actors and actresses who appeared in Allen's films said they would never work with him again, with some of them donating their salaries from his films to organizations that support survivors of sexual abuse.

Dylan Farrow is the married mother of a daughter now. Late last year, she made her literary debut with "Hush," a young-adult novel featuring a heroine who has to fight against a powerful band of fantasy-peddling magicians to tell her painful truth. It's Dylan's story filtered through a science fiction lens, but the message is real.

"One of the things I have discovered over the years since coming forward with my own story is that it's not as uncommon as I would have believed earlier on in my life," Farrow said last fall in an NPR interview. "I think the story of women in particular, and young women, having to struggle to tell their stories truthfully and to draw power for themselves from that is not exclusively my story."

"Allen v. Farrow" airs at 9 p.m. Sundays on HBO and streams on HBO Max.

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.

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