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    ‘Allen v. Farrow’ Episode 4 Recap: An Adult Dylan Farrow Speaks Out

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Allen v. Farrow’ Episode 4 Recap: An Adult Dylan Farrow Speaks OutThe finale of the HBO docuseries delves into the changing perception of Woody Allen and Ms. Farrow’s decision to go public with her allegations of sexual abuse.Frank Maco, the former Connecticut state’s attorney who decided not to press charges in an investigation, with Dylan Farrow, in “Allen v. Farrow.”Credit…HBOMarch 14, 2021The final installment of “Allen v. Farrow,” an HBO documentary series examining Dylan Farrow’s sexual abuse allegations against her adopted father, Woody Allen, covers the years from 1993, when a state’s attorney declined to prosecute the filmmaker, to the present.The previous three episodes explored what Ms. Farrow says happened on Aug. 4, 1992, when she was 7 years old — that her father sexually assaulted her in the attic of the family’s Connecticut country home. The filmmakers combed through police and court documents, scrutinized the integrity of the investigations into her accusation and sought expert analysis of video footage of young Dylan telling her mother what happened.Mr. Allen has long denied sexually abusing his daughter and has accused her mother, Mia Farrow — Mr. Allen’s ex-girlfriend — of concocting the sexual-assault accusation because she was angry at him for having a sexual relationship with her college-age daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. (Mr. Allen and Ms. Previn later married.) A spokesperson for Mr. Allen, who did not participate in the documentary, said that it is “riddled with falsehoods.”The finale covers the world’s reaction to the events of the early 1990s, Mr. Allen’s continued fame and accolades and, in recent years, a growing unwillingness among those in Hollywood to be associated with him after the #MeToo Movement.The prosecutor’s decisionThe episode begins on Sept. 24, 1993. That day, Frank Maco, a Connecticut state’s attorney, announced that although he had “probable cause” to prosecute Mr. Allen, he had decided he would not press charges to spare Ms. Farrow the potential trauma of a trial.Mr. Maco, who was interviewed extensively for the documentary, says that earlier that month in 1993, he had met with young Dylan in his office, with toys in the room and a female state trooper there. When Mr. Maco asked about her father, he said, she froze up and would not respond.“The strongest proponents for prosecution just looked at me, and we all shrugged our shoulders,” Mr. Maco said. “We weren’t going anywhere with this child.”In a news conference, Mr. Allen said that rather that being happy or grateful for the decision, he said he was “merely disgusted” that his children had been “made to suffer unbearably by the unwholesome alliance between a vindictive mother and a cowardly, dishonest, irresponsible state’s attorney and his police.”“I felt if I had just kept his secret,” Ms. Farrow says, “I could have spared my mom all this grief, and my brothers and sister — myself.”Credit…HBODylan grows upIn the years after the police investigation and the custody trial, which ended in her mother’s favor, Ms. Farrow says she suffered through a long period of guilt, thinking that she was at fault for the family rift.“I felt if I had just kept his secret,” she tells the filmmakers, “I could have spared my mom all this grief, and my brothers and sister — myself.”Siblings say in the series that Ms. Farrow often kept to herself and seemed riddled with anxiety. She says that she didn’t talk about the assault in depth with anyone — not even her mother or her therapist. In high school, she recalls, she broke up with her only boyfriend after only three weeks because she anticipated that he would want to be intimate with her.Ronan Farrow, Ms. Farrow’s brother, tells the filmmakers that his mother tried to distance her children from Mr. Allen. But, he says, “there was always a lot of incentive to be drawn into Woody Allen’s efforts to discredit” his sister. For example, Mr. Farrow says, Mr. Allen had made him an offer that if he spoke out against his mother and his sister publicly, Mr. Allen would help pay for his college education.After an awards showThe saga returned to the public discourse in 2014, after Mr. Allen received a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes. In the past, Mr. Farrow tells filmmakers, he had discouraged his sister from speaking publicly about their father and the events of the 1990s with the hope that the family could put it behind them.But after the awards show, Mr. Farrow tweeted, “Missed the Woody Allen tribute — did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?” Ms. Farrow says that her brother’s willingness to speak publicly about the subject emboldened her to write about her memory of events, which were appeared in The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof’s blog. (Mr. Farrow, who helped his sister publish the open letter, said that after another newspaper declined to print the account, he took it to Mr. Kristof, a family friend.) Mr. Allen later published an Op-Ed in The Times denying his daughter’s allegations.For two decades, Ms. Farrow says, she felt isolated and alone because of her experience. After publishing her letter, she received an outpouring of messages from people she knew sharing their own experiences with sexual abuse.Loyalty to Mr. AllenStill, many Hollywood actors remained loyal to Mr. Allen despite the accusations, and his star power and industry reputation remained mostly intact..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-rqynmc{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.9375rem;line-height:1.25rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-rqynmc{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-rqynmc strong{font-weight:600;}.css-rqynmc em{font-style:italic;}.css-yoay6m{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-yoay6m{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1dg6kl4{margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:15px;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-1pd7fgo{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1pd7fgo{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-1pd7fgo:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1pd7fgo{border:none;padding:20px 0 0;border-top:1px solid #121212;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-coqf44{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-coqf44 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-coqf44 em{font-style:italic;}.css-coqf44 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-coqf44 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#333;text-decoration-color:#333;}.css-coqf44 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}Understand the Allegations Against Woody AllenNearly 30 years ago, Woody Allen was accused of sexually abusing Dylan Farrow, his adopted daughter. A new docuseries re-examines the case.This timeline reviews the major events in the complicated history of the director, his children and the Farrow family.The documentary filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering spoke about delving into this thorny family tale. Read our recaps of episode 1, episode 2, episode 3 and episode 4.Dylan Farrow wrote an open letter in 2014, posted by the New York Times opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof, recounting her story in detail.Our book critic reviewed Mr. Allen’s recent memoir, “Apropos of Nothing.”A.O. Scott, co-chief film critic, grappled with the accusations and his complicated feelings on the filmmaker in 2018. Four days after Ms. Farrow’s letter was published, her brother Moses Farrow told People Magazine that she was never molested. He also said that Mia Farrow coached the children to hate Mr. Allen and that she often hit him as a child. When Dylan Farrow learned what her brother said, she burst into tears, saying, “It was like I had been told that this person that I knew and loved and trusted was gone.”In interviews with the filmmakers, Ronan Farrow along with two more siblings, Fletcher Previn and Daisy Previn, say that the abuse allegations against their mother were untrue.In 2018, Moses Farrow followed up with a blog post that continued to dispute his sister’s account of sexual abuse. He targeted a specific detail of her story, which she had included in The Times letter: that while Mr. Allen sexually assaulted her, she remembers focusing on her brother’s electric train set, which had been traveling in circles around the attic. Mr. Farrow said that there was no electric train set in the attic. In Mr. Allen’s recent memoir, “Apropos of Nothing,” he also disputed that detail, calling it a “fresh creative touch.”But, according to police documents, the detectives investigating the alleged assault did find a train set in the attic. A detailed drawing from 1992, which is shown in the episode, includes an object labeled “toy train track” in the attic crawl space.Ms. Farrow with her mother, Mia Farrow.Credit…HBODylan, decades laterThis episode captures Ms. Farrow’s adult life, 28 years after she says her father assaulted her. It shows her husband, Sean, whom she met on a dating site linked to The Onion, and Ms. Farrow, now 35, playing with their young daughter.At one point, Mia Farrow asks her daughter, “Do you ever feel angry at me?” referring to her choice to bring Mr. Allen into the family. In response, Dylan Farrow says that, first and foremost, she was glad that her mother believed her account of that day in 1992, saying, “You were there when it mattered.”Another scene in the episode shows Mr. Maco, the state’s attorney, meeting with Ms. Farrow — their first encounter since 1993.Mr. Maco said that he told Mia Farrow that when her daughter becomes an adult, he would be happy to answer any questions. That opportunity came last fall — and the documentary team recorded their conversation.“A part of me really, really wishes that I could have done it,” Dylan Farrow tells Mr. Maco, “that I could have had my day in court.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    ‘Allen v. Farrow’ Episode 3 Recap: Investigations and a Custody Trial

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Allen v. Farrow’ Episode 3 Recap: Investigations and a Custody TrialFilmmakers delve into dozens of boxes of records that documented the investigations into Dylan Farrow’s accusation of sexual abuse.Mia Farrow with her daughter Dylan in “Allen v. Farrow.” Episode 3 focuses on police and court documents, much of which had never been made public.Credit…HBOMarch 7, 2021In the previous episode of “Allen v. Farrow,” the HBO documentary series that examines Dylan Farrow’s accusation of sexual abuse against her father, Woody Allen, the filmmakers introduced viewers to key video footage of a 7-year-old Dylan explaining events to her mother.Although the footage, shot by Mia Farrow, had not been released publicly before this series, its existence has been the subject of controversy. Allies of Mr. Allen saw it as proof that Mia, Dylan’s mother, had coached Dylan. Others saw it as clear evidence that the accusations were true.Episode 3 revisits this footage and delves into the investigations, court proceedings and familial turmoil that followed.Mr. Allen has long denied the accusations of sexual abuse, and, after the first episode aired, a spokesperson for him said that the docuseries was “riddled with falsehoods.”This episode is built largely off police and court documents, much of which had never been made public, including a trove of more than 60 boxes of documentation that was in a lawyer’s storage room.Frank S. Maco, a state’s attorney in Connecticut, who worked on the case. He asked the child abuse clinic at Yale-New Haven Hospital to evaluate Dylan Farrow.Credit…HBOA high-profile police inquiryIt was Dylan Farrow’s pediatrician who first reported her allegations to the authorities, leading to investigations by the Connecticut State Police and the New York City Child Welfare Administration. (Dylan Farrow said the sexual assault occurred in the attic of the family’s Connecticut summer home.)In an extensive interview, Frank S. Maco, then a state’s attorney in Connecticut, says that he intended to investigate the accusation “quietly,” but that Mr. Allen held a news conference at the Plaza Hotel, where he shared the news of the investigation. Mr. Allen called the allegations a “gruesomely damaging manipulation of innocent children for vindictive and self-serving purposes.” He also declared his love for Soon-Yi Previn, Mia Farrow’s daughter, suggesting that the allegations were a result of Mia lashing out over that relationship.“They were doing a great job painting Mia Farrow as a scorned woman who would say anything,” said Rosanna Scotto, a broadcast reporter who covered the news at the time.Armed with that narrative, Mr. Allen went on a media campaign, while Ms. Farrow stayed relatively quiet. She told filmmakers that she was trying to establish some semblance of normalcy for her children.The Yale-New Haven reportMr. Maco, the prosecutor, said that he asked the child abuse clinic at Yale-New Haven Hospital to evaluate Dylan Farrow, to determine whether she would be traumatized by taking the stand at a trial and whether there were any “impediments” to her ability to testify — including any ability to “perceive, recall and relate.”During a seven-month inquiry, experts interviewed Dylan Farrow nine times, a number that child abuse and legal experts tell the documentary filmmakers was excessive for a child subject.“I would repeat the story over and over and over again,” Dylan Farrow says in the episode. “It was grueling and it was intense.”The final report stated that there were “inconsistencies” in Dylan Farrow’s statements and that she had “difficulties distinguishing fantasy from reality.” It found that her accusations were “likely reinforced and encouraged” by her mother. The clinic shared the results with Mr. Allen and Mia Farrow without telling Mr. Maco they were doing so, he said, and Mr. Allen announced the determinations at a news conference.Later on, during the custody battle between Mr. Allen and Ms. Farrow, the director of the clinic said in a deposition that its practice was to destroy notes; experts interviewed in Episode 3 say that this is antithetical to common practice in their field.The New York investigationThe inquiry by New York City’s Child Welfare Administration was being spearheaded by Paul Williams, a caseworker who interviewed Dylan Farrow and found her to be credible.Within two weeks of the investigation, Mr. Williams determined that there was sufficient information to open a New York-based criminal investigation, but he was told by superiors that in high-profile cases like this one, it was customary for the “big wigs” to take responsibility and for the welfare administration to relinquish control, according to case records reviewed by the filmmakers.A lawyer for Mr. Williams, Bruce Baron, says in the documentary that at the time, his client “wouldn’t shut up” about the case at work, and he was fired for insubordination. Mr. Williams sued the city over the firing, arguing in part that the city had suppressed information about the case; he won in court and got his job back..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-rqynmc{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.9375rem;line-height:1.25rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-rqynmc{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-rqynmc strong{font-weight:600;}.css-rqynmc em{font-style:italic;}.css-yoay6m{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-yoay6m{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1dg6kl4{margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:15px;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-1pd7fgo{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1pd7fgo{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-1pd7fgo:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1pd7fgo{border:none;padding:20px 0 0;border-top:1px solid #121212;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-k9atqk{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-k9atqk strong{font-weight:700;}.css-k9atqk em{font-style:italic;}.css-k9atqk a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px solid #ccd9e3;}.css-k9atqk a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px solid #ddd;}.css-k9atqk a:hover{border-bottom:none;}Understand the Allegations Against Woody AllenNearly 30 years ago, Woody Allen was accused of sexually abusing Dylan Farrow, his adopted daughter. A new docuseries re-examines the case.This timeline reviews the major events in the complicated history of the director, his children and the Farrow family.The documentary filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering spoke about delving into this thorny family tale. Read our recaps of episode 1 and episode 2.Dylan Farrow wrote an open letter in 2014, posted by the New York Times opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof, recounting her story in detail.Our book critic reviewed Mr. Allen’s recent memoir, “Apropos of Nothing.”A.O. Scott, co-chief film critic, grappled with the accusations and his complicated feelings on the filmmaker in 2018. In looking through Mr. Williams’s case files, the filmmakers found notes about a conversation he had with Jennifer Sawyer, a social worker who had interviewed Dylan Farrow for the Yale-New Haven report. According to the notes, Ms. Sawyer told Mr. Williams that “she believes Dylan” and believed that the child had “more to disclose.”In a seven-month period, Dylan Farrow was questioned nine times by clinic workers.Credit…HBOThe custody battleOn Aug. 13, 1992, nine days after the alleged sexual assault, Mr. Allen sued Mia Farrow for custody of their three children: Dylan Farrow, Moses Farrow and Ronan Farrow.In a taped phone call between Mia Farrow and Woody Allen, Ms. Farrow brings up his lawsuit against her and accusations that she was an unfit mother, to which he responds, “And I’m going to make them stick.” Ms. Farrow begged him to drop the case.During the trial, which started in the spring of 1993, Mr. Allen testified that he believed Ms. Farrow had “brainwashed” her daughter and that he was not alone with Dylan on the day that she said he assaulted her.The judge ultimately sided with Ms. Farrow, saying that Mr. Allen exhibited grossly inappropriate behavior toward Dylan and that “measures must be taken to protect her.” The judge called the Yale-New Haven report “sanitized,” considering the destruction of the notes and the team’s unwillingness to testify at trial.Expert analysisAt the end of the episode, the filmmakers return to the footage of Dylan Farrow taken by her mother, and show child abuse experts analyzing the video for the documentary. At the custody trial, where the footage was entered as evidence, Mr. Allen said that Ms. Farrow had asked her daughter “in a leading way about molestation.”But after seeing the footage, one of the documentary’s interviewees, Anna Salter, a child abuse expert and psychologist, said that Ms. Farrow did not make any “overt suggestions” in her questioning. One “implicit” suggestion Ms. Farrow makes, Dr. Salter said, is asking her daughter if Mr. Allen took her underpants off. (Dylan responds that he hadn’t done so.)“From my point of view, what’s important is Dylan’s response: Does she go along with the suggestion?” Dr. Salter said. “But she doesn’t.”As Ms. Farrow says in a taped phone call between her and Mr. Allen played at the top of the episode: “Dylan’s a baby; how could you do that to her?”Mr. Allen’s response is inaudible.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    ‘Allen v. Farrow’ Episode 2 Recap: A Family Torn Apart

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Allen v. Farrow’ Episode 2 Recap: A Family Torn ApartSeven months after the shocking discovery of Woody Allen’s relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, he was accused of sexually abusing Dylan Farrow.From left, Moses Farrow, Soon-Yi Previn, Dylan Farrow and Woody Allen.Credit…HBOFeb. 28, 2021At the end of Episode 1 of “Allen v. Farrow,” the HBO documentary series that investigates the decades-old sexual abuse accusations by Woody Allen’s adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, the family has just started to cope with the revelation that Mr. Allen and Soon-Yi Previn were involved in a secret relationship.In January 1992, Mia Farrow, Ms. Previn’s mother and Mr. Allen’s girlfriend, discovered nude photos of Ms. Previn, who was then in college, at Mr. Allen’s apartment.The second episode examines the fallout from that discovery and Dylan Farrow’s allegations that her father sexually assaulted her in August 1992, when she was 7 years old.After the first episode premiered, a spokesperson for Mr. Allen and Ms. Previn, who have been married for more than 20 years, released a statement saying the series was “riddled with falsehoods” and suggesting that the filmmakers did not give them ample notice to respond to it. The publisher of Mr. Allen’s recent memoir, “Apropos of Nothing,” also objected to the inclusion of snippets from the audiobook, which it says were used without permission.The filmmakers said in a statement on Wednesday that Mr. Allen and Ms. Previn were approached in December and were given two weeks to confirm their interest in an on- or off-camera interview. A representative confirmed that they had received the request but did not respond to it, the statement said. Mr. Allen has denied ever having been sexually inappropriate or abusive toward Dylan Farrow.Here is what we saw on Sunday night, in Episode 2.A fixation on a certain kind of romanceThis episode, using interviews with journalists and clips from Mr. Allen’s films, explores Mr. Allen’s focus on romantic relationships between older men and younger women.In addition to the films with that theme that have been produced (“Husbands and Wives,” “September”), the episode considers those that did not make it to the screen and that reside in the Woody Allen archive at Princeton University. The archive contains multiple versions of film scripts and pages of ideas with notes in the margins. Richard Morgan, a freelance journalist who examined the archive for The Washington Post, said in the documentary that it reveals a “focus” on “very young women.”The episode includes an interview with Christina Engelhardt, a woman who says she started a relationship with Mr. Allen when she was 17 years old and he was in his early 40s. Ms. Engelhardt, who was a model as a teenager, said she believes their relationship was the basis for “Manhattan,” Mr. Allen’s acclaimed 1979 film that centers on a romance between a high school girl and a man — played by Mr. Allen — who is older than her father.She says in an interview with the filmmakers that her relationship with Mr. Allen, which she said lasted until she was 23, has “taken a toll” on her, affecting her later relationships. She says the experience also made her a “supervigilant mother.”Dylan FarrowCredit…HBOThe aftermath of the photosAfter Ms. Farrow discovers the nude Polaroids of Ms. Previn, the family is in shock. Daisy Previn, one of Ms. Farrow’s daughters, recounts how she told her sister, Soon-Yi, that she should come back to the family — that their mother would forgive her — and how Soon-Yi went in another direction, to Mr. Allen.Ms. Farrow recalls a moment that she was “not proud” of from around this time: She found Soon-Yi talking to someone on the phone and, assuming it was Mr. Allen, Ms. Farrow said she “pounced on her,” slapping Soon-Yi on the side of the face and the shoulder. (In 2014, Moses Farrow, Mia and Woody’s son, told People magazine that his mother bullied the children and hit him. Moses, who has sided with his father in saying that he does not believe that Dylan was molested, has not participated in the docuseries.)Part of a taped phone conversation between Ms. Farrow and Mr. Allen from the summer of 1992 is included in the episode. Ms. Farrow says she decided to record it because she thought Mr. Allen had already taped one of their phone calls. In the conversation, Ms. Farrow and Mr. Allen argue about what they should say to the media if his relationship with Ms. Previn becomes public.Fletcher Previn, one of Ms. Farrow’s older children, tells the filmmakers that during this time, his opinion of Mr. Allen shifted dramatically.“He went from a father figure to a person who is a predator that we have to keep out of the house and protect ourselves from,” Mr. Previn said.Aug. 4, 1992Amid this chaos, the family went to their Connecticut country house, and despite the rift between Ms. Farrow and Mr. Allen, he had a legal right to see Dylan and Moses Farrow because he had adopted them in 1991..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-rqynmc{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.9375rem;line-height:1.25rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-rqynmc{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-rqynmc strong{font-weight:600;}.css-rqynmc em{font-style:italic;}.css-yoay6m{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-yoay6m{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1dg6kl4{margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:15px;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-1pd7fgo{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1pd7fgo{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-1pd7fgo:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1pd7fgo{border:none;padding:20px 0 0;border-top:1px solid #121212;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-1pd7fgo[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-k9atqk{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-k9atqk strong{font-weight:700;}.css-k9atqk em{font-style:italic;}.css-k9atqk a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px solid #ccd9e3;}.css-k9atqk a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px solid #ddd;}.css-k9atqk a:hover{border-bottom:none;}Understand the Allegations Against Woody AllenNearly 30 years ago, Woody Allen was accused of sexually abusing Dylan Farrow, his adoptive daughter. A new docuseries re-examines the case.This timeline reviews the major events in the complicated history of the director, his children and the Farrow family.The documentary filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering spoke about delving into this thorny family tale. Dylan Farrow wrote an open letter in 2014, posted by the New York Times opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof, recounting her story in detail.Our book critic reviewed Mr. Allen’s recent memoir, “Apropos of Nothing.”A.O. Scott, co-chief film critic, grappled with the accusations and his complicated feelings on the filmmaker in 2018. The episodes include a mixture of interviews and court testimony from those who were present on Aug. 4, 1992, the day that Dylan Farrow says her father assaulted her. Mia Farrow had gone to the store with Casey Pascal, a family friend whose children and babysitter were at the house that day. Sophie Bergé, a French tutor staying with the family that summer, said that Mr. Allen arrived while they were running errands.On that day, there were about 20 minutes during which Dylan Farrow could not be found, according to 1993 testimony in the custody case from Kristi Groteke, the babysitter for the Farrow children. Ms. Groteke said in court that she looked for Dylan throughout the house but could not find her.When Ms. Farrow and Ms. Pascal returned home, Ms. Farrow said, she noticed that Dylan was not wearing underpants and asked her babysitter to get a new pair.The day afterOn Aug. 5, Ms. Pascal said that she called Ms. Farrow to tell her that the Pascals’ babysitter, Alison Stickland, had witnessed something that disturbed her: Dylan Farrow sitting on the couch, with Mr. Allen, on his knees, his head buried in his daughter’s lap.Ms. Farrow tells the filmmakers that when she asked her daughter what had happened, Dylan confirmed that Mr. Allen had put his head in her lap and that he had also taken her up to the attic and touched her “privates.” Ms. Farrow says she decided to film her daughter’s account because she wanted to tell Dylan’s therapist, who was away for the summer.That footage, which is being shown publicly for the first time in this series, later became the subject of controversy: Some thought it was clear evidence that Dylan Farrow was telling the truth, while others saw it as evidence that Ms. Farrow had coached her daughter on what to say.In the video, Dylan Farrow says that in the attic, her father told her, “Do not move, I have to do this,” and that if she stayed still, they could go on a trip to Paris.Dylan Farrow, now 35 years old, says in the documentary she remembers that during the assault, she focused her attention on her brother’s train set.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Soon-Yi Previn, Dylan Farrow: A Timeline

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWoody Allen, Mia Farrow, Soon-Yi Previn, Dylan Farrow: A TimelineA look at major events in the complicated history of the director, his children and the Farrow family as a new documentary revisits the case.Woody Allen and Mia Farrow in the 1980s with, from left, Fletcher, Dylan (in Farrow’s arms), Moses, and Soon-Yi.Credit…The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesSopan Deb, Deborah Leiderman and Feb. 21, 2021, 11:16 a.m. ETFor years, the account given by Woody Allen’s then-7-year-old adopted daughter Dylan Farrow in the days following Aug. 4, 1992, when she says he sexually assaulted her, has been central to her case against him.The specialists who heard the child’s account then and in later years have been divided on whether it was credible or whether it was coerced by her adoptive mother, Mia Farrow. But the public has only heard Dylan, as an adult, recount what she told her mother nearly 30 years ago.Now Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick’s four-part documentary, “Allen v. Farrow,” which premieres on HBO on Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern (and streams on HBO Max), will for the first time include video footage of Dylan, recorded by her mother, describing what happened to her just days after she said Mr. Allen molested her.The film is the latest development in a case that has been debated for nearly 30 years. It made headlines again in 2014 when Mr. Allen received a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes — and Dylan Farrow wrote an open letter, posted by the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, recounting her story in detail in response.Then, in September 2018, New York magazine published a lengthy interview with Soon-Yi Previn, her first extended remarks on her relationship with Mr. Allen, who began to date her mother, Mia, when Ms. Previn was a young girl. Mr. Allen and Ms. Previn began a romantic relationship in 1991, when Ms. Previn was 21.Mr. Allen has long denied assaulting his daughter and argued that Mia Farrow coached Dylan to say she had been assaulted after discovering that Ms. Previn and Mr. Allen were having an affair.This timeline highlights important dates and developments in the narrative that has its roots in the 1970s. Based on New York Times articles and other news reports, it is a guide, not a comprehensive accounting, and will be updated periodically.1977Mia Farrow and her husband, André Previn, adopt Soon-Yi Previn, from Korea; she is believed to be about 7 years old.1979Woody Allen and Ms. Farrow are introduced at Elaine’s, the Manhattan restaurant, and later begin a relationship.Woody Allen and Mia Farrow in “A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy.”Credit…MGM1982The couple’s first movie together, “A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy,” is released. They would collaborate on 12 more films, including “The Purple Rose of Cairo” and “Hannah and Her Sisters.”1985Ms. Farrow adopts a baby girl, Dylan, who was born in Texas.1987Ms. Farrow and Mr. Allen have a son, Ronan. Ms. Farrow would later suggest in a 2013 Vanity Fair interview that Frank Sinatra may have been his father.December 1991Mr. Allen adopts Dylan and Moses Farrow, one of Ms. Farrow’s sons, whom she adopted in 1980. Mr. Allen, who is 56, begins an affair with Ms. Farrow’s 21-year-old daughter, Ms. Previn, around this time.Jan. 13, 1992Ms. Farrow discovers nude photographs of Ms. Previn in Mr. Allen’s apartment. He later testifies in court that he thought the affair would remain secret.Aug. 1, 1992With the affair between Mr. Allen and Ms. Previn continuing, Ms. Farrow calls Susan Coates, a psychologist who had been helping the family, and describes Mr. Allen as “satanic and evil” and begs her to “find a way to stop him.”Mr. Allen and Ms. Previn around 1992.Credit…The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesAug. 4, 1992According to Dylan Farrow, Mr. Allen abused her that day, touching her genitalia. She was 7 at the time. She detailed her accusation in January 2018 on “CBS This Morning”:DYLAN FARROW: I was taken to a small attic crawl space in my mother’s country house in Connecticut by my father. He instructed me to lay down on my stomach and play with my brother’s toy train that was set up. And he sat behind me in the doorway, and as I played with the toy train, I was sexually assaulted … As a 7-year-old I would say, I would have said he touched my private parts.GAYLE KING: Mmhmm. OK.FARROW: Which I did say.KING: All right. All right.FARROW: As a 32-year-old, he touched my labia and my vulva with his finger.Aug. 5, 1992Casey Pascal, a friend of Ms. Farrow’s, tells her that Dylan’s babysitter described observing Mr. Allen in a position with Dylan that seemed inappropriate. According to Vanity Fair, Ms. Farrow immediately asked Dylan about it, and she gave her account to her mother.Ms. Farrow calls Dr. Coates, the psychologist, and says Dylan has complained that Mr. Allen has abused her. A major question later considered in court was whether Ms. Farrow had coached her daughter during this period. According to later court testimony by Dr. Coates, she is struck by Ms. Farrow’s calm during the call, as opposed to her agitated state in the Aug. 1 call.Aug. 13, 1992Mr. Allen sues Ms. Farrow in New York State Court for custody of Ronan, Dylan and Moses Farrow.Aug. 17, 1992Mr. Allen releases a statement confirming his relationship with Ms. Previn, saying it is “real and happily all true.” The same day, the Connecticut State Police announce they are investigating Mr. Allen. The focus: the allegations that he molested Dylan.Aug. 18, 1992Mr. Allen makes a public appearance to say he is “saddened” by the child abuse allegations and calls them “false” and “outrageous.”Nov. 1992Vanity Fair publishes “Mia’s Story,” a lengthy reported piece about Ms. Farrow, her family, the abuse allegations and her history with Mr. Allen.Nov. 22, 1992Mr. Allen speaks on “60 Minutes” and defends himself against the molestation allegations.Mr. Allen, at a press conference outside of the Manhattan Supreme Court in January 1993.Credit… Steve Allen/Liaison, Getty ImagesMarch 18, 1993After a seven-month inquiry by a team of child-abuse investigators at Yale-New Haven Hospital, Mr. Allen’s lawyers say he has been cleared of molesting Dylan Farrow. Ms. Farrow’s legal team calls the confidential report “incomplete and inaccurate.” The report, which was commissioned by Connecticut law enforcement, was never officially released, but media outlets reported some of its contents.March 19, 1993The custody trial begins. Mr. Allen takes the stand and describes the disintegration of his relationship with Ms. Farrow. He testifies that Ms. Farrow threatened him in phone calls and flew into rages in front of the children after the two started falling out.March 25, 1993Ms. Farrow takes the stand. She goes into detail about what Dylan told her the previous summer. She says she worried that Mr. Allen had a sexual attraction to Dylan from when she was 2 years old.March 29, 1993Dr. Coates testifies that she told Mr. Allen she feared for his safety because of threats made by Ms. Farrow. She says that she considered Mr. Allen’s relationship with Dylan to be “inappropriately intense,” but not sexual. The next day, Ms. Farrow’s lawyer portrayed Dr. Coates as “mesmerized” by Mr. Allen.April 27, 1993A child psychiatrist testifies that the report from Yale-New Haven Hospital is “seriously flawed.”May 3, 1993A sworn statement from John M. Leventhal, the doctor who led the Yale-New Haven team, is released to the public. It theorizes that Dylan was emotionally unstable and coached by Ms. Farrow to accuse Mr. Allen. The Yale-New Haven team interviewed Dylan nine times and said she changed details throughout the interviews; Dr. Leventhal said in his statement that he had interviewed her, but Vanity Fair reported years later that he had not.Ms. Farrow with her lawyer Eleanor Alter on June 7, 1993, after the court sided with her in the custody case.Credit…Jeff Christensen/Liaison, via Getty Images June 7, 1993Mr. Allen loses the custody battle. Acting Justice Elliott Wilk of the State Supreme Court said Mr. Allen is “self-absorbed, untrustworthy and insensitive.” He denies Mr. Allen visitation rights with Dylan.Sept. 24, 1993Frank Maco, a state’s attorney in Connecticut, announces that while he has “probable cause” to prosecute Mr. Allen, he would decline to press charges to spare Dylan the trauma of a trial. Mr. Maco says he believed that Dylan had been molested.January 1994Mr. Allen files an appeal to the custody case.May 12, 1994The New York State appeals court denies Mr. Allen’s appeal.Mr. Allen and Ms. Previn in Paris on Dec. 25, 1997. They were married two days before in Venice, Italy.Credit…Michael Euler/Associated PressDec. 23, 1997Mr. Allen marries Ms. Previn.June 24, 2001Mr. Allen gives a long interview to Time magazine’s Walter Isaacson recounting his relationship with Soon-Yi — “The heart wants what it wants,” he says — and again denies the allegations by Dylan and Mia Farrow.June 17, 2012After years of relatively little news coverage of Mr. Allen and Mia and Dylan Farrow, Ronan Farrow posts on Twitter: “Happy father’s day — or as they call it in my family, happy brother-in-law’s day.”November 2013Dylan Farrow goes on the record for the first time in an interview with Vanity Fair. She is 28 now and describes receiving entreaties from Mr. Allen from when she was 18. She says of the alleged abuse by Mr. Allen: “There’s a lot I don’t remember, but what happened in the attic I remember. I remember what I was wearing and what I wasn’t wearing.”Jan. 12, 2014In response to Mr. Allen receiving a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes, which Diane Keaton accepted on his behalf, Ronan Farrow posts on Twitter: “Missed the Woody Allen tribute — did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?”Ms. Keaton at the Golden Globes in 2014.Credit…Paul Drinkwater/NBCUniversal, via Getty ImagesFeb. 1, 2014Dylan Farrow writes an open letter recounting her story in detail, posted by the Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.Feb. 4, 2014After the letter, Mia Farrow posts on Twitter: “I love my daughter. I will always protect her. A lot of ugliness is going to be aimed at me. But this is not about me, it’s about her truth.”Feb. 5, 2014In response to Dylan’s open letter, Moses Farrow defends Mr. Allen in an interview with People Magazine, saying Mia Farrow coached the children to hate Mr. Allen. He says that Dylan was never molested and that Ms. Farrow was a bully.Feb. 7, 2014Mr. Allen, writing in the Opinion section of The Times, denies the allegations again.2014Ms. Keaton and Alec Baldwin, two friends and stars in Allen films, defend him in the face of Dylan Farrow’s accusations. Cate Blanchett, the star of Mr. Allen’s “Blue Jasmine,” is more circumspect, saying she hopes Mr. Allen and the family “find some sort of resolution and peace.” Lena Dunham calls Dylan “courageous” and urges people to read her open letter.May 11, 2016In a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter, Ronan Farrow writes about the struggles that Dylan faced in getting her story out and says he believes Dylan’s account.October 2017The New York Times, and then Ronan Farrow in The New Yorker, publish articles about sexual harassment, abuse and rape allegations against Harvey Weinstein.Mr. Allen says he feels “sad for Harvey” and warns against “a witch hunt atmosphere.” He later calls Mr. Weinstein “a sad, sick man.”Kate Winslet, the star of Mr. Allen’s film “Wonder Wheel,” demurs when asked about the accusations against Mr. Allen: “It’s just a difficult discussion. I’d rather respectfully not enter it today.” Griffin Newman, an actor in Mr. Allen’s next film, “A Rainy Day in New York,” expresses regret for working with him and pledges to donate his salary to an organization that fights sexual violence.November 2017The actor Elliot Page says that working with Mr. Allen on the film “To Rome With Love” was “the biggest regret of my career” and expresses sympathy for women and minors who have suffered sexual abuse.Dec. 7, 2017Dylan Farrow writes an op-ed for The Los Angeles Times: “Why has the #MeToo revolution spared Woody Allen?”January 2018Colin Firth and Greta Gerwig say they would not work with Mr. Allen again. Mira Sorvino, who won an Oscar for Mr. Allen’s “Mighty Aphrodite,” rebukes him and expresses support for Dylan. Rebecca Hall and Timothée Chalamet, two stars of “A Rainy Day in New York,” also criticize him and donate their salaries from the film to charity. Ms. Winslet, alluding to Mr. Allen, expresses “bitter regrets that I have about poor decisions to work with individuals with whom I wish I had not.”Dylan Farrow with Gayle King on “CBS This Morning.”Credit…CBS, via Associated PressJan. 18, 2018“CBS This Morning” airs the first television interview with Dylan Farrow, where she recounts the allegations. Mr. Allen again denies them.Feb. 26, 2018The actor Peter Sarsgaard, in an interview with Chuck Todd on “MTP Daily,” says he would not do another Allen movie. As for Jeff Daniels, who was also asked in the interview whether he would work with Mr. Allen again, he says, “He will always be a great American filmmaker and I got to work with him at the age of 30 and it changed my life.” Mr. Daniels adds: “I believe Dylan Farrow. So now, would I do another one with Woody? The difficult decision would be to — turn him down. Because of ‘Purple Rose.’”Sept. 16, 2018New York magazine publishes a long interview with Ms. Previn in which she accuses Ms. Farrow of harsh parenting and defends Mr. Allen, who sits in on parts of the conversation.Nov. 16, 2018The Times publishes an interview with the actor Jude Law, who worked with Mr. Allen on “A Rainy Day in New York,” in which he says the shelving of the film by the distributor, Amazon Studios, was a “terrible shame.”When asked about the accusations against Mr. Allen, Mr. Law said he did not want to get involved in the conversation: “I just don’t feel like it was my place to comment, and it’s too delicate a situation. I feel like enough has been said about it. It’s a private affair.”The director Woody Allen, in 2017. A new HBO documentary, “Allen v. Farrow,” explores Dylan Farrow’s accusation that Mr. Allen sexually assaulted her as a child, which he has repeatedly denied.Credit…Brendan Mcdermid/ReutersFebruary 2019Mr. Allen sues Amazon for canceling a $68 million movie deal. (Amazon had backed out amid renewed focus on Dylan’s allegations.) Weeks later, The Times reports that Mr. Allen is shooting a new movie in Spain, backed by the Barcelona-based conglomerate Mediapro.When asked why it was working with Mr. Allen after Amazon had stopped doing so, Mediapro said in a statement, “We have a 10-year relationship with Mr. Allen and, like all projects we produce, we judge the creator by its work.”November 9, 2019Mr. Allen and Amazon settle; terms are not disclosed.March 2, 2020Grand Central Publishing, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, announces that it will publish Mr. Allen’s memoir, “Apropos of Nothing,” on April 7. The book is described as a comprehensive account of his life, “both personal and professional,” including details about his relationships with “family, friends and the loves of his life.”In a statement on Twitter, Dylan Farrow harshly criticizes Hachette, which had previously published Ronan Farrow’s book “Catch and Kill,” which recounts how he reported sexual assault allegations against the producer Harvey Weinstein. She calls the decision to publish Mr. Allen’s memoir “an utter betrayal.”March 5, 2020Dozens of Hachette employees stage a walkout in protest. The next day, Hachette announces it will no longer publish “Apropos of Nothing.”March 23, 2020Mr. Allen’s book is published by Arcade Publishing. In the book, he again denies that he sexually abused Dylan and calls the allegations “a total fabrication from start to finish.”February 21, 2021The HBO documentary “Allen v. Farrow” makes public for the first time the video footage from 1992 when Mia Farrow recorded Dylan, at age 7, reporting that Mr. Allen had sexually assaulted her.Sara Aridi contributed reporting.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Filmmakers Look at Woody Allen Abuse Allegations in Four-Part Series

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyFilmmakers Look at Woody Allen Abuse Allegations in Four-Part SeriesKirby Dick and Amy Ziering are known for films exposing sexual abuse in institutions. Why did they delve into a thorny family tale? “We realized the full story had never gotten out.”Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering spent three years making a documentary that re-examines the allegation that Woody Allen sexually abused his adopted daughter.Credit…Photographs by Rozette Rago for The New York TimesPublished More

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    ‘Black Art: In the Absence of Light’ Reveals a History of Neglect and Triumph

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s Pick‘Black Art: In the Absence of Light’ Reveals a History of Neglect and TriumphAn HBO documentary explores two centuries of art by African-Americans, and the path they forged for contemporary Black artists.Kerry James Marshall’s ‘‘Untitled (Studio)’’ (2014) appears in “Black Art: In the Absence of Light,” a documentary film directed by Sam Pollard.Credit…HBOFeb. 8, 2021Updated 3:56 p.m. ETBlack Art: In the Absence of LightNYT Critic’s Pick“This is Black art. And it matters. And it’s been going on for two hundred years. Deal with it.”So declares the art historian Maurice Berger toward the beginning of “Black Art: In the Absence of Light,” a rich and absorbing documentary directed by Sam Pollard (“MLK/FBI”) and debuting on HBO Tuesday night.The feature-length film, assembled from interviews with contemporary artists, curators and scholars, was inspired by a single 1976 exhibition, “Two Centuries of Black American Art,” the first large-scale survey of African-American artists. Organized by the artist David C. Driskell, who was then-head of the art department at Fisk University, it included some 200 works dating from the mid-18th to the mid-20th century, and advanced a history that few Americans, including art professionals, even knew existed.The HBO documentary recalls a landmark show “Two Centuries of Black American Art” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1976. It was organized by David C. Driskell.Credit…Museum Associates/LACMAThe press gave that survey a mixed reception. Some writers griped that it was more about sociology than art (Driskell himself didn’t entirely disagree). But the show was a popular hit. At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it originated, and then at major museums in Dallas, Atlanta and Brooklyn, people lined up to see it.What they were seeing was that Black artists had always done distinctive work in parallel to, and some within, a white-dominated mainstream that ignored them. And they were seeing that Black artists had consistently made, and are continuing to make, some of the most conceptually exciting and urgent-minded American art, period — a reality only quite recently acknowledged by the art world at large, as reflected in exhibitions, sales and critical attention.Driskell appeared in the HBO documentary before he died last year. “Isolation isn’t, and never was, the Black artist’s goal,” he said. “He has tried to be part and parcel of the mainstream, only to be shut out.”Credit…HBOThe HBO documentary introduces us to this history of long neglect and recent correction through the eloquent voices of three people who lived both sides of it: Driskell, a revered painter and teacher; Mary Schmidt Campbell, the president of Spelman College in Atlanta, Ga., and former director of the Studio Museum in Harlem; and Berger, an esteemed art historian and curator. (The film is dedicated to the two men, both of whom died from complications related to Covid-19 in 2020, Driskell at 88, Berger at 63.)They’re surrounded by artists, most of them painters, of various generations. Some had careers that were well underway by 1976 (Betye Saar, for example, and Richard Mayhew, who was in the survey). Others were, at that point, just starting out in the field. (Kerry James Marshall remembers being blown away by a visit to the show when he was 21). Still others — Kehinde Wiley (born 1977) and Jordan Casteel (born 1989) — weren’t born when the survey opened but still count themselves among its beneficiaries.The portraitist Jordan Casteel discusses how she finds her subjects on streets.Credit…HBOMarshall in his studio explains the many colors he uses that are “Black.”Credit…HBOThe question arises early in the film — in a 1970s “Today Show” interview with Driskell by Tom Brokaw — as to whether the very use of the label “Black American art” isn’t itself a form of imposed isolation. Yes, Driskell says, but in this case a strategic one. “Isolation isn’t, and never was, the Black artist’s goal. He has tried to be part and parcel of the mainstream, only to be shut out. Had this exhibition not been organized many of the artists in it would never have been seen.”The film refers, in shorthand form, to past examples of shutting-out. There’s a reference to the Metropolitan Museum’s 1969 “Harlem on My Mind: Cultural Capital of Black America, 1900-1968,” an exhibition that was advertised as introducing Black creativity to the Met but that contained little in the way of art. And mention is made of artists’ protests of the Whitney Museum’s 1971 survey “Contemporary Black Artists in America,” which was left entirely in the hands of a white curator.A book of essays titled “Black Art Notes,” printed that year in response to the Whitney show, accused white museums of “artwashing” through the token inclusion of African-American work, a charge that has continuing pertinence. (The collection was recently reissued, in a facsimile edition, by Primary Information, a nonprofit press in Brooklyn.) Even before the Met and Whitney shows, Black artists saw the clear necessity of taking control of how and where their art was seen into their own hands. Ethnically specific museums began to spring up — outstandingly, in 1968, the Studio Museum in Harlem.The 1969 exhibition “Harlem on My Mind” resulted in demonstrators picketing outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Credit…Jack Manning/The New York TimesWe’re talking about a dense, complex history. No one film can hope to get all of it, and this one leaves a lot out. (Mention of the Black Power movement is all but absent here.) Still, there’s a lot, encapsulated in short, deft commentary by scholars and curators, among them Campbell, Sarah Lewis of Harvard University, Richard J. Powell of Duke University, and Thelma Golden, the current director and chief curator of the Studio Museum. (Golden is a consulting producer of the film. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is its executive producer.)Rightfully, and delightfully, the majority of voices are those of active artists. Faith Ringgold, now 90, wasn’t in the 1976 show, or in big museums much at all, because, she asserts, her work was too political and because she’s female. (Of the 63 artists in “Two Centuries of Black American Art,” 54 were male.) Her solution? “I just stay out till I get in,” she says. And persisting has paid off: Her monumental 1967 painting “American People Series #20: Die” has pride of place in the Museum of Modern Art’s current permanent collection rehang.)Faith Ringgold said she was excluded from the black and mainstream art movement because she was female. “I just stay out till I get in,” she said.Credit…HBOThe artist Fred Wilson explains his use of objects and cultural symbols to explore historical narratives in sculptures and installations.Credit…HBOParticularly interesting are segments showing artists at work and talking about what they’re doing as they’re doing it. We visit Marshall in his studio as he explains the many, many paint colors he uses that are “black.” We follow Fred Wilson into museum storage as he excavated objects that will become part of one of his history-baring installations. We watch Radcliffe Bailey transform hundreds of discarded piano keys into a Middle Passage ocean. And we tag along with the portraitist Jordan Casteel, who recently wrapped up a well-received show at the New Museum, as she seeks out sitters on Harlem streets.There’s no question that the visibility of African-American artists in the mainstream is way higher now than it’s ever been. (Thank you, Black Lives Matter.) A big uptick in shows is one measure. Landmark events like the 2018 unveiling of the Obama portraits by Wiley and Amy Sherald is another.In an interview in the film Sherald brings up this sudden surge of attention. “A lot of galleries are now picking up Black artists,” she says. “There’s this gold rush.” But where some observers would see the interest as just a next-hot-thing marketing trend driven by a branding of “Blackness,” she doesn’t. “I say it’s because we’re making some of the best work, and most relevant work.”In 2018, Kehinde Wiley, left, unveiled his painting of Barack Obama, alongside Amy Sherald’s portrait of Michelle Obama, at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. Credit…Gabriella Demczuk for The New York TimesThe point of Pollard’s film, which was also the point of Driskell’s 1976 survey, is to demonstrate that, and to demonstrate that Black artists have been making some of the best work and the most relevant work for decades, centuries. But they’ve been making it mostly on the margins, beyond the white art world’s spotlights.The artist Theaster Gates, who appears toward the end of the film, sees the advantage, even the necessity, of that positioning.“Black art means that sometimes I’m making when no one’s looking,” he says. “For the most part that has been the truth of our lives. Until we own the light, I’m not happy. Until we’re in our own houses of exhibitions, of discovery, of research, until we’ve figured out a way to be masters of the world, I’d rather work in darkness. I don’t want to work only when the light comes on. My fear is that we’re being trained and conditioned to only make if there’s a light, and that makes us codependent upon a thing we don’t control. Are you willing,” he asks his fellow artists, “to make in the absence of light?”Driskell, to whom this film really belongs and with whose presence it concludes, also leaves the question of the future of Black art open-ended. Around it, he’s says, “there’s been an awakening, an enlightenment through education, a desire to want to know. On the other hand, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr. : We haven’t reached the promised land. We’ve got a long way to go.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    What’s on TV This Week: Documentaries on David Driskell and Abraham Lincoln

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhat’s on TV This Week: Documentaries on David Driskell and Abraham Lincoln“Black Art: In the Absence of Light” looks at the impact of an influential 1970s exhibition by the curator David Driskell. And a CNN debuts a series about Lincoln.Gabriel Chytry in “Lincoln: Divided We Stand,” a new six-part CNN documentary.Credit…CNNFeb. 8, 2021, 1:00 a.m. ETBetween network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Feb. 8-14. Details and times are subject to change.MondayBLACK LIGHTNING 9 p.m. on the CW. When “Black Lightning” premiered in 2018, it delivered a jolt of real-world relevance to the superhero genre, exploring race and social justice issues in no uncertain terms even as its titular hero, played by Cress Williams, delivered the obligatory zaps and zings to bad guys. The fourth season, which debuts Monday night, will be the series’s last; it begins with Black Lightning (alter ego: Jefferson Pierce) mourning the death of a major character, which happened at the end of the third season.TuesdayTheaster Gates in a scene from “Black Art: In the Absence of Light.”Credit…HBOBLACK ART: IN THE ABSENCE OF LIGHT 9 p.m. on HBO. The filmmaker Sam Pollard, whose acclaimed new documentary “MLK/FBI” was released widely last month, returns with another sharp, historically-minded feature doc, this time about David Driskell, the artist, art historian and curator who was a vital champion of African-American artists. “Black Art” looks at the enduring impact of “Two Centuries of Black American Art,” Driskell’s 1976 exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, through interviews with artists including Theaster Gates, Kerry James Marshall, Faith Ringgold, Amy Sherald and Carrie Mae Weems. The film comes less than a year after Driskell’s death; it shows the fundamental role he played in efforts to get Black American artists space on museum walls. “I was looking for a body of work which showed first of all that Blacks had been stable participants in American visual culture for more than 200 years,” Driskell said of the exhibition in a 1977 interview with The New York Times. “And by stable participants I simply mean that in many cases they had been the backbone.”WednesdayTUSKEGEE AIRMEN: LEGACY OF COURAGE 8 p.m. on History. Ted Lumpkin Jr., one of the oldest surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen, died last month at 100. His legacy — and those of the other members of the Tuskegee Airmen, the country’s first Black aviation combat unit, which fought in World War II — live on through the generations that came after them. This hourlong documentary, narrated by the news anchor Robin Roberts, revisits the history of the unit, whose members fought the Axis powers outside of the United States and discrimination inside of it.ThursdayCLARICE 10 p.m. on CBS. This ambitious new horror series is the latest show based on Thomas Harris’s suspense novels, which most famously include “The Silence of the Lambs.” It’s also the latest to revolve around Clarice Starling, the F.B.I. agent famously played by Jodie Foster in the 1991 film. The new show picks up months after the events of “Silence of the Lambs,” with Clarice (Rebecca Breeds) taking on new cases while working through lingering trauma.FridayBeanie Feldstein in “How to Build a Girl.”Credit…IFC FilmsHOW TO BUILD A GIRL (2020) 9 p.m. on Showtime. Beanie Feldstein plays an awkward British teenager who becomes an acid-penned, love-struck rock critic in this coming-of-age comedy, which was adapted from Caitlin Moran’s novel of the same name. The movie version “leaps from raunchy to charming, vulgar to sweet, earthy to airy-fairy without allowing any one to settle,” Jeannette Catsoulis wrote in her review for The Times. Yet, she added, “it’s so wonderfully funny and deeply embedded in class-consciousness — ‘We must never forget it’s a miracle when anyone gets anywhere from a bad postcode,’ says one character — that its tonal incontinence is easily forgiven.” Showtime is airing “How to Build a Girl” alongside Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade,” another sweet and sour coming-of-age comedy about a teenage misfit, which starts at 7:25 p.m.MILES AHEAD (2016) 6:15 p.m. on Starz. In “Miles Ahead,” Ewan McGregor plays a rock journalist whose subject punches him in the face. That subject would be Miles Davis, portrayed here by a devastatingly cool Don Cheadle. The film takes after Davis’s music, bringing an unusual, impressionistic approach to its storytelling; it drops Davis into a fictional story that involves a bender, a stolen tape and a car chase. Cheadle, who also directed, cooks up a version of Davis who is both soft-spoken and supremely self-assured.IN CONCERT AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). This pandemic-era series, which has showcased a variety of archival performances by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its guests at the Hollywood Bowl, comes to a close on Friday night with an episode built around Latin music. It includes footage of the orchestra performing alongside the Colombian singer-songwriter Carlos Vives, the Mexican rock band Café Tacvba and performers from Siudy Flamenco Dance Theater in Miami.SaturdayROMAN HOLIDAY (1953) 8 p.m. on TCM. Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck star in this romantic comedy about a princess (Hepburn) who falls in love with a reporter (Peck) during a trip to Rome. Viewers who raised children in the early 2000s (or who were children in the early 2000s) might find the image of Hepburn and Peck piloting a Vespa through Roman traffic familiar: It was copied a half-century later in “The Lizzie McGuire Movie.”SundayWinona Ryder and Daniel Day-Lewis in “The Age of Innocence.”Credit…Columbia PicturesTHE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1993) 8 p.m. on TCM. Daniel Day-Lewis has worn many top hats. There’s the big one he wore in “Lincoln,” for example, and the memorable blue-banded number that was perched on his head in “Gangs of New York.” In “The Age of Innocence,” Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel, Day-Lewis plays a fancy high hat-wearing wealthy lawyer in 19th-century New York who, after courting and marrying one woman (Winona Ryder), has affair with a countess (Michelle Pfeiffer).LINCOLN: DIVIDED WE STAND 10 p.m. on CNN. The actor Sterling K. Brown narrates this new, six-part documentary series about Abraham Lincoln, which looks at the 16th president’s personal and political lives, and how each affected the other. The first episode tends toward the personal: It focuses on the early years of Lincoln’s life.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    'Chappelle's Show' Off Netflix as Comedian Fights ViacomCBS

    The comedian Dave Chappelle said that he was a broke 28-year-old expectant father when he signed a contract with Comedy Central about two decades ago.“I was desperate, I needed a way out,” Chappelle recalled in a clip of a stand-up set that he posted on Instagram on Tuesday.It was that signature, Chappelle said, that laid the groundwork for his current tension with ViacomCBS. He said that the company had licensed his old Comedy Central sketch show, “Chappelle’s Show,” to both Netflix and HBO Max without providing additional compensation — or even informing him about the deal.“Perfectly legal because I signed the contract,” he said in the video. “But is that right? I didn’t think so either.”In response, Chappelle went to Netflix, the home of several of his stand-up specials, and asked the service to stop streaming “Chappelle’s Show,” which had been broadcast on Comedy Central from 2003 to 2006. Netflix agreed, and pulled the show early on Tuesday morning after streaming it for less than a month. Hours later, Chappelle, 47, posted the 18-minute video on Instagram, which he described as “publicly flogging a network,” referring to ViacomCBS, which owns Comedy Central.A spokeswoman for Netflix confirmed that the service had removed the sketch show overnight at Chappelle’s request but declined to comment further. ViacomCBS and HBO did not immediately respond to requests for comment.“Chappelle’s Show” lasted for two full seasons before Chappelle, the show’s star and creator, walked away from it, sparking questions about how he could have abandoned what could have amounted to a $50 million deal. In 2006, Chappelle told Oprah Winfrey in the first interview after his departure that he had left the show in part because of stress and in part because he felt conflicted about the material he was producing, saying, “I was doing sketches that were funny, but were socially irresponsible.”The show often dealt with issues of race and sexuality in Chappelle’s notoriously uncensored, boundary-pushing style. In one famous sketch, Chappelle played a blind white supremacist who does not know he is Black.In his Instagram video, titled “Unforgiven,” Chappelle said he felt he was never properly paid for “Chappelle’s Show” after he left. At the time, Comedy Central released three episodes of an abbreviated third season from material it already had.Chappelle framed his experience as reflective of an unfair system that mistreats artists in comedy and television, comparing it to the abuses in the industry revealed by the #MeToo movement. While he praised Netflix for its decision to remove the show, he skewered Comedy Central for giving him a “raw deal” that he said made it difficult to recreate the show elsewhere.“If I do,” Chappelle said, “I can’t call it ‘Chappelle’s Show’ because my name and likeness is being used by them in perpetuity throughout the universe. It’s in the contract.”Chappelle also pointed out the irony that HBO had rejected his initial pitch for the sketch show, then ended up streaming it years later. “Chappelle’s Show” is still available to watch on Comedy Central, CBS All Access and HBO Max.Earlier this month, Chappelle mentioned the conflict in his “Saturday Night Live” monologue when he joked about how his great-grandfather, who was born enslaved, might react upon learning that a show bearing his name was being streamed, but that he was not being paid for it.All of Comedy Central’s actions seemed to be within the contract’s terms, according to Chappelle’s recounting, but it was those terms that the comedian was objecting to in the first place.Chappelle’s proposed solution was not legal action — it was harnessing the power of his fan base to send television executives a message.“Boycott ‘Chappelle’s Show,’” Chappelle said in the video posted Tuesday. “Do not watch it unless they pay me.” More