He co-produced and provided visual effects for the documentary Jimi Hendrix (1973); he co-directed the Beatlemania spoof All You Need Is Cash (1978) with the film's star, Eric Idle; he directed the comedy film Diary of a Young Comic (1979) starring Richard Lewis, as well as 80 Blocks from Tiffany's (1979), a documentary about gangs in the South Bronx.
Weis worked as a cameraman for the 1970 Rolling Stones tour documentary Gimme Shelter that culminated with footage of the infamous Altamont Free Concert.
[5] NBC subsequently commissioned Weis to direct some full-length films to be aired during SNL's timeslot when the show was on summer hiatus.
[10] Later that summer, Weis filmed the documentary 80 Blocks from Tiffany's, which documented the lives of gang members in the South Bronx, a neighborhood that was suffering from a high level of crime and urban decay at the time.
[6] In a 2010 interview with BlackBook magazine, Weis said that NBC was reticent to air the film because of a recent legal case brought against ABC related to a movie made by their entertainment division of the news.
[6] Instead, 80 Blocks from Tiffany's premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival in 1980 and was released to home video in 1985 by Pacific Arts Entertainment.
Together, the two "conceptualized" music videos for Toto's "Without Your Love," The Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian", Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" and others.