'Allen v. Farrow' directors push back on criticism against their docuseries

• Ziering and Dick say they gave Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn "plenty of time" to be in the docuseries.
• The series being criticized they believe is "standard playbook" when it comes to stories about sexual abuse allegations.
• They showed Dylan Farrow shaking uncontrollably in episode 4 to present her long-lasting trauma.

For the last four weeks, HBO has aired its stirring docuseries "Allen v. Farrow," which chronicles the allegations by Woody Allen's adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, that the filmmaker sexually abused her when she was 7 years old.

Over the course of the series, which concluded with its fourth episode on Sunday, directors Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick examine the allegations and the messy custody battle that followed between Allen and his longtime girlfriend, Mia Farrow.

"Allen v. Farrow" has found critical acclaim, but also scorn from those who feel it unfairly depicts Allen, who has never been charged with any crime and has disputed Farrow's claim for years. After the first episode aired, Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, who is an adopted daughter of Mia Farrow, released a statement declaring the docuseries a "hatchet job riddled with falsehoods."

Insider spoke to Ziering and Dick about some of the criticisms of the series and major moments in episode 4.

The filmmakers say Allen and Previn were given 'plenty of time' to be part of the docuseries

Jason Guerrasio: What was your reaction when you read Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn's statement after the first episode aired?

Kirby Dick: It wasn't surprising.

Amy Ziering: I wasn't surprised but it was also unfair to make that assessment. It's precocious to make that statement if you haven't seen all four parts.

Do you feel you gave them enough time to respond?

Dick: They had plenty of time to respond and let us know if they wanted to do the interview. And keep in mind, this is in the era of COVID-19 so this would have been the easiest interview ever because they would have been sitting in front of their computer. They wouldn't have had to leave their apartment.

Ziering: We gave them a window of time to just respond and then we would set up a time and it could have been months later, so it's a little disingenuous. They are not accurately presenting things.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but you never heard anything from Allen's team.

Ziering: Exactly. And it's an open invitation, I'm sure HBO would do a fifth episode. He's welcome to talk to us.

In the statement, it says that Woody and Soon-Yi were given notice less than two months ago and only given a matter of days to respond. What is your response to that?

Ziering: Untrue.

The filmmakers were aware of Mia Farrow's needle-poked Valentine's Day card to Allen but wanted to focus on things related to the allegations

One of the criticisms of the docuseries is there are certain things not shown. One is Mia Farrow's Valentin's Day card she sent to Allen in 1992 that had needles and a knife poked in a photo of Farrow's family. Was there ever a time when the Valentine's Day card was included in the documentary?

Dick: We were aware of it. We really wanted to focus on acts that were specifically relevant to the allegations. There were these accusations made by Woody Allen, Soon-Yi, and by Moses [an adopted son of Mia Farrow's] that Mia was a bad mother and an abusive mother. That was of great concern to us and we certainly wanted to investigate that and we did. And everything we came across showed there really was no credible corroboration of that claim. In fact, all nine of her other children contradicted those statements. There really isn't any credible evidence that she was anything but a very good and loving mother.

Ziering: And keep in mind if there was credibility and corroboration for abuse, where would it come out? In a custody trial. So the absence of that [in the case] is telling.

But did you bring up the Valentine's Day card on camera to Mia or anyone?

Dick: I believe we did discuss it.

The publisher of Allen's memoir, "Apropos of Nothing," has threatened a lawsuit over audiobook excerpts used. But you are claiming fair use, right?

Dick: This is all fair use. We went to our attorneys and they are extremely experienced attorneys. They are litigators, they go to court over this issue, and they were and still are very confident that our use of it was legal under the guidelines of fair use.

Ziering said they showed Dylan Farrow shaking uncontrollably in episode 4 as an example of her long-lasting trauma

There's a scene in episode 4 where Dylan begins to shake uncontrollably while being interviewed with her husband. Take me through what it was like shooting that.

Ziering: I think that moment is very instructive and telling. Here we are almost two decades later [since the alleged abuse] and here's a woman in her own home with a very tiny film crew talking about something and having a very extreme physiological reaction that she herself was surprised by.

Why I feel it was important to include is not that it's sad but to show people just how long-lasting the effects of these kinds of traumas are. People don't just do that for any other reason unless there's something that actually happened. That's above and beyond anyone's acting skills.

Had she said that she'd had this reaction before? Had it happened before while you were with her?

Ziering: Never. A complete shock. We weren't even in there for very long. It wasn't like we spent the whole day with her. We just came in for a short time to film what you see. It was completely out of the blue.

Dick: Having done several films on sexual assault, we have seen this before so it's always surprising when it happens but it's not a surprising symptom. It's certainly something we have seen before.

Dick said the docuseries being picked apart is 'standard playbook' when it comes to sexual abuse allegations

I assume you knew going in that the docuseries would get picked apart. Have you experienced this before on other projects?

Kirby: Most women or children who report sexual abuse experience this kind of questioning. If something is stolen from you nobody starts taking apart that reporting at all. But when it comes to the issue of sexual assault and sexual abuse it's so common. So has any of this surprised us? No, not at all. This is the standard playbook that we've seen forever. What we hope though is by people seeing this series is they will come to understand the issue of sexual abuse better and then they will be less susceptible to those kinds of distractions or distortions.

Ziering: The best defense is a good offense, especially one that capitalizes on misogynistic tropes and conventions that people are eager to embrace.

Are you concerned that despite what the docuseries uncovers there will always be a Team Woody that will never be swayed in what they believe?

Ziering: This is team truth. We can't fight a world that wants things to be opinion-based and belief-based and feelings-based. That's not the world I want to live in. I want to live in a world that's still truth-based. When it comes to crimes they should really look at facts and evidence and not feelings. That's what our work is intent on doing.

Dick: There will always be some people out there that will not be persuaded, no matter how much evidence they are given. But we have seen in the past with our films that actually it really helps change the way people look at the issue generally and the cases specifically. We already know a lot of people who have one perspective on this that once they've seen our reporting have now dramatically shifted their perspective.