About us

FLOATING WORLD PICTURES

Producers of award-winning documentaries about people who take risks, challenge the status quo, and change the world.

JEFF KAUFMAN

Jeff Kaufman directed, produced, & wrote the Emmy-nominated American Masters documentary about playwright Terrence McNally, “Every Act Of Life” (with Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury, Nathan Lane, Billy Porter, and others), and the Critics’ Choice-nominated documentary about Iranian human rights activist and political prisoner Nasrin Sotoudeh (narrated by Olivia Colman), “Nasrin.” Other films include “The State Of Marriage” (about the women who launched the marriage equality movement), and “The Savoy King: Chick Webb and the Music That Changed America” (about Harlem jazz and the discovery of Ella Fitzgerald, with John Legend, Janet Jackson, and Billy Crystal), plus short documentaries with Time Magazine and Amnesty International.

Since Covid, he has written three full-length plays and two short plays. His second play, FIRST AID, was a winner of the 2024 Long Beach Playhouse New Works Festival. He also contributed cartoons to The New Yorker and illustrations to The Los Angeles Times, wrote for The Washington Post and CNN, hosted an Associated Press Award-winning daily radio talk show in Vermont, and exhibited paintings in several Los Angeles galleries. In 2023, he organized a global women’s rights campaign about the mandatory hijab with Amnesty International, PEN America, RFK Human Rights, Ms. Magazine, and others.

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MARCIA S. ROSS

Marcia S. Ross produced the Emmy-nominated American Masters documentary “Terrence McNally: Every Act Of Life” (with Angela Lansbury, Meryl Streep, and Bryan Cranston), and the Critic’s Choice-nominated “Nasrin” (narrated by Olivia Colman). Other documentaries include “The Savoy King” (with John Legend, Janet Jackson, Billy Crystal, and Jeff Goldblum), “The State Of Marriage” (with Rep. John Lewis), “40 Million: The Struggle For Women’s Rights in Iran,” (for Time Magazine), and “Father Joseph.” She also has a three-decade career as an independent casting director and executive, serving sixteen years as EVP for Casting at Walt Disney Motion Pictures, and five years as SVP for Casting and Talent Development at Warner Brothers TV.

Her film and television credits include “Clueless,” “thirtysomething," “10 Things I Hate About You,” “The Princess Diaries," “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion," “Reign of Fire,” “Annapolis,” “The Recruit,” “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,” “The Muppets,” “Murder in Mississippi,” “The Lookout,” “Enchanted, “Oblivion,” and “Parental Guidance.”

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Use of “Floating World Pictures” as the name of our production company is inspired in part by the style of Japanese woodblock prints from the Edo Period (1615-1868). The term ukiyo-e originally came from the Buddhist term ukiyo (literally “floating world”) for the impermanent, fleeting world, and the word e for picture. These prints often sold for less than the price of a cup of noodles, so commoners could afford to own artwork that reflected their own interests and activities.