Iowa Public Television

Woody Allen: American Masters

Woody Allen: American Masters

His is one of the longest and most prolific careers in show business -- beginning with joke-writing and stand-up comedy in the 1950s and morphing into the world of film in the late 1960s. As a writer, director and/or actor, he has averaged a film a year for the past 40 years. But Woody Allen has remained a notoriously private man. After 20 years of begging, the Emmy Award-winner Robert Weide gained unprecedented access to the expanse of this film legend's life and creative process. Beginning with his Brooklyn childhood and deeply exploring this ultimate "independent filmmaker's" writing habits, casting, directing and relationship with his actors, Weide follows Allen over a year and a half, from the London set of 2009's "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" through to 2011's "Midnight in Paris" --both feted at the Cannes Film Festival -- featuring scenes of Allen's inner sanctums at home and in the editing room.