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This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
When during the making ofAllen v. Farrowdid the cache of documents enter the picture?
Obviously, we had initially thought that this was extensively covered.
Amy Herdy: The stork of journalistic gold nuggets dropped several gifts our way.
There are a few of those documents online; if you dig around, you might find them.
My question was, Where is the rest of it?
Why do we get to see these documents now?
Amy Ziering:Because Amy is amazing.
Amy is a superpower.
Like, who else, really?
No one did their homework?
Kirby Dick: Well, they were going up against a machine, that was part of it.
I think Woody Allen very effectively controlled the narrative.
But Amy is incredibly persistent.
Its both skill and persistence.
Amy Herdy: That was one of the challenges.
But we got tens of thousands of pages of documents.
How do you sift through them?
Amy Herdy: You just start reading, page by page.
And whose testimony would have been relevant.
But I can honestly say I went through every single box.
Does that raise the stakes in comparison to your previous work?
Amy Herdy: Absolutely, and I was very protective of this material.
I was paranoid that something was going to happen to it, that we would lose it.
Im carrying my boxes out from the room and Im looking around to see who is watching me!
This is really important to us that we get this story right.
Amy Ziering:We had no reason or investment or agenda going in.
So I was very much influenced by the common knowledge about the case.
Were you able to reach out to them?
Amy Herdy: Some of them are dead now, unfortunately.
I think they wanted to let the documents speak for themselves, and they do.
Thats the beauty of what we have; its all laid out in very thorough, fastidious records.
And it took, in a number of cases, a long time for them to decide to speak.
There was an incredible amount of fear here.
How do you eventually get them to speak now?
Does being in the age of Me Too help get them to speak?
We think its just a family tragedy, a personal tragedy for a handful of people.
But what was astonishing to us is that there was so much fallout in the wake of this.
People lost jobs; people left careers.
You see that in episode three.
Kirby Dick: And to learn that it caused her to leave her job.
We were stunned; we had no idea.
We expected Paul Williams to have had a really difficult experience, but his supervisor?
Wow, that was surprising.
If its that powerful, you could imagine people thinking,Why talk now?
And that episode shows that that investigator did not clear [him].
That investigator found that he had enough evidence to go to court with.
And what happened to that investigator?
The audiotapes show Woody in a cold-blooded timbre weve never really heard before.
Does he always sound like that?
How many tapes were there?
Kirby Dick:I would say very consistent throughout.
Theres a lot of shifting of perspectives and emotions welling up.
Amy Herdy:There were several tapes, and they recorded each other.
But Mia did not start recording Woody Allen until she was led to believe that he was taping her.
I think thats important to note.
With regards to the Farrows home-video footage, do you know what types of occasions she filmed?
How often was she filming?
Amy Ziering: All the time.
She was like an early adopter, she was the precursor of the selfie era.
She had a gorgeous eye; many of the photographs you see in the movie she took herself.
She really could have had another career, honestly.
And shes also just a really creative person, she was always videotaping.
Was there any other concerning footage not seen in the series of Woody interacting with Dylan?
Amy Herdy:I think its what you see.
I think the developing physicality is what is shown of him with Dylan.
If a camera is out, theyre going to be much more cautious.
I think that as soon as the camera came out … it didnt surprise us.
It shows an interesting lack of boundaries.
Amy Herdy: The look on her face.
An outcry witness is the first adult witness whom the child discloses having been abused to.
Amy Ziering: Mia, when Dylan became of age, gave Dylan the tape.
She said, Here, do with it what you will.
Its yours; its you.
After a long internal debate, she decided to offer it to us to look at.
What determined that time frame?
Amy Herdy: They were given two weeks to indicate interest.
Not just to respond, but just, Hey, are you interested in talking with us?
You have two weeks to say yes or no.
Thats how we do all our films.
But we give them a certain finite time to respond so that we can plan our productions accordingly.
So the series would have been delayed if there was interest on their side.
Amy Ziering: One hundred percent.
We would have loved, loved, loved getting to talk with them.
What response have you received about the series so far?
Theyve contacted us and said, Your series is amazingly informative.
Finally, people will understand how grooming works.
She said this is going to be so eye-opening.
So were hopeful this will hopefully push us forward on an issue in a way that is long overdue.
