The HBO documentary series, Allen v. Farrow, just aired its second episode Sunday. Just hours before its release, one of the subjects of the documentary Dylan Farrow released a statement addressing never-before-seen footage that would be included in the episode. She told viewers to expect a 7-year-old Dylan, who she calls ‘Little Dylan,’ telling her mother Mia Farrow that she was sexually abused by director, Woody Allen.
In the statement, Dylan describes lost sleep and anxiety about the public release of the tapes. Due to her unease around it, she felt it necessary to put out a statement.
Dylan Farrow felt ‘overcome by anxiety’ ahead of the release of unseen footage to air on ‘Allen v. Farrow.’ The feeling prompted her to release a statement to the public.
“I’m writing this, because to be totally honest I have been losing sleep and overcome with anxiety,” Dylan’s statement begins. “Tonight’s episode of the Allen v. Farrow docuseries features a video of me as a seven-year-old child disclosing my abuse to my mother.”
She said the video was given to her by her mother when she became an adult, “to do whatever I wanted with it. It shows me as I was then, a young, vulnerable child. ‘Little Dylan,’ whom I’ve tried ever since to protect.”
The video was allegedly recorded on August 5, 1992, the day after Woody Allen allegedly molested her. If you have seen the episode, the video and audio are not excellent and at times it can be hard to see and hear what Dylan was saying to her mother. Thankfully, The Hollywood Reporter listened very closely to piece together what the 7-year-old says in the newly released footage.
“He touched [my] privates. And then he was breathing on my leg. And then he squeezed me too hard, that I couldn’t breathe,” the outlet’s transcript reads.
Mia Farrow recorded the footage of Dylan Farrow following an incident her babysitter had witnessed.
In the documentary, Mia describes why she decided to tape her daughter. She alleges that Dylan’s babysitter at the time, Alison Strickland, said she witnessed Allen with his face buried in Dylan’s lap. Mia says that the babysitter’s concerns prompted her to ask her daughter about the incident and to preserve it as potential evidence of a crime.
“Personally, I had, for decades, pushed ‘Little Dylan’ away as a coping mechanism,” Dylan Farrow explains in her statement. “So part of my goal in allowing her to now speak is also to try and find some healing for me and my childhood self. It’s an attempt to make them whole again, and find some peace and closure.”
“If you watch this video, I very much hope you will do so with empathy, compassion, and an open mind and heart and not use this as an opportunity to attack, turn away, criticize, mock or to future shun ‘Little Dylan’ and in doing so shame and silence the millions of abused children who are suffering in the world today. This is the most vulnerable part of who I am.”
Allegations about the abuse were denied by Woody Allen the same year they came to light following a custody battle with Mia. She had allowed Allen to co-adopt Dylan a year prior.
“As has been known for decades, these allegations are categorically false,” a statement released last weekend by the director and wife Soon-Yi Previn asserted in response to the first episode of Allen v. Farrow. “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.”
The documentary has consistently put the events surrounding Allen’s split from Mia and subsequent marriage to her adopted daughter, and the various scandals surrounding all of it into clearer focus for viewers.
The newly released footage is so compelling because it shows Dylan Farrow’s courage as an adult to share such vulnerability with the entire world. Allen v. Farrow currently airs Sundays at 9 PM ET on HBO/HBOMax. There are two episodes coming in the next couple of weeks.
If you have experienced sexual abuse or are experiencing or know someone who is, contact the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network and/or visit their website to learn more. CALL: 1-800-656-4673, VISIT: https://www.rainn.org/