Last night Woody Allen‘s jazz band performed in Hamburg, Germany, and was interrupted by a topless feminist protest.
Two members of the women’s rights group Femen appeared on stage as Allen was performing to remind the crowd of Allen’s alleged abusive past. Video of the incident shows two women with black ink on their chests; they spoke of ending the “culture of silence” around abuse but were removed from the stage before getting to read a quote from Allen’s adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, who has accused the director of childhood sexual abuse and in 2014 wrote about the effect it has had on her life.
The women continued speaking off stage even after Allen and his band blithely continued playing. On Femen Germany’s Facebook page, a clearer photo of the women shows a quote from Farrow’s 2014 New York Times piece: “Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse.”
Accusations of abuse have followed Allen for decades; he married another adopted daughter, Soon-Yi, after it was found they were having an affair in the early ’90s, and has said some troubling things about their relationship. Actress Mariel Hemingway wrote in her memoir that Allen tried to seduce her as a teen.
Allen has always denied any accusations and has continued to be able to make movies and pursue his artistic endeavors, like his jazz band, with little blowback.
A post on Femen’s blog states: “Violence against women is not to be ignored, is not tolerable and not excusable, even if the accused is called Woody Allen.”