captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm oodruff. on the newshour tonight: a wise move or a risky one? esident trump's decision to meet with north korean leader kim jong-un changes the u.s.' approach to nuclear negotiat then, on the fire line. changes at the top of the forest e, after our newshour investigation into a culture of sexual mconduct and retaliation at the agency. also ahead, we sit down with "a wrinkle in time" director ava duvernay to talk her new film and being the first african american women to leovie of this scale. >>t's an indictment of an industry that's ignored incredible black women, brown women, all kinds of women of color, filmmakers, for decades,

over a century. >> woodruff: all that, plus the analysis of mark shieldsnd kathleen p on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> consumer cellular understands that not everyone needs an

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>> woodruff: surprise, praise, skepticism. the range of reactions to last night's announcement that president trump and north korean dictator kim jong-un may meet face to face. hari sreenivasan begins our coverage. >> sreenivasan: it was a stunning announcement, made more so by the circumstances: in the whuse driveway, by south korea's visiting national security adviser. >> kim pledgt north korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile t and he expressed his eagerness to meet president trump as soon as possible. >> sreenivasan: south korean officis had met with kim jong-un on monday, and then briefed president trump thursday afternoon. >> president trump appreciated iefing and said he would meet kim jong-un by may to achieve perm denuclearization. >> sreenivasan: if that does

happen, it would mark the first time any sitting american president has met face-to-face with a north korean leader. mr. trump weighed in on twitter last night, saying, "great progress being made, but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached." today, during a visit to djibouti, u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson said the president's decision was "not a surprise." >> president trump has said for some time that he was open to talks and he would willingly meet with kim jong-un wh conditions were right, when the time was right. anink, in the president's judgment, that time has arrived now. >> sreenivasan: tillerson argued it's kim jong-un who has changed. >> what changed was his posture, in a fairly dramatic way. in all honesty, was a little of a surprise to us as well. >> srean: a top north korean diplomat at the united nations told the "washington post" that kim's invitation resulted from a "broad-minded and resolute decision" to achieve peace.

the sudden turn of events o me after the aders had traded insults and threats for more than a year. this was president trump addressing the u.n. general assembly last september: >> the united states has great strength and patience, but if it isd to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea.an rockets on a suicide mission for himself and for hi regime. >> sreenivasan: the north korean leader fired back, through a news reader on state-run tv. >> ( translated ): "i will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged u.s. dotard with fire. >> sreenivasan: the north also launched nearly two dozen missiles last year, including intercontinental weaponshat it said are capable of reaching the u.s. mainland. president trump reonded with his "maximum pressure" campaign of strict, new sanctions and stepped-up military exercises.

today, vice president pence said in a statement, "president p's strategy to isolate the kim regime is working. the north koreans are coming to the table despite the united states making zero concessions." but this afternoon, white house press secretary sarah sanders suggested the talks are not definite yet.no >> we argoing to have this meeting take place ureil we see co actions that match the words and the rhetoric of north korea. >> sreenivasan: meanwhile in the region, reaction was cautiously timistic. south korean president moon jae-inpoke in pyeongchang. >> ( translated ): president trump promised to meet north korean leader kim jong-un by may. denuclearization and peace on the korean peninsula are beginning to be realized. >> sreenivasan: that he was echoed by china's foreign ministry. >> ( translated ): we must strive for peace and seize opportunity. >> sreenivasan: but there's also skepticism, based on a long history of failure.

thneu.s. and north korea sigd the so-called "agreed framework" in 1994. it eventually collapsed, with both sides blaming each other for not living up to it. and, starting in 2003, the u.s. took part in a series of six- party talks after north korea tythdrew from the nuclear non- proliferation tr they ultimately collapsed when rth expelled nuclear weapons inspectors. for the pbs newshour, i'm hari sreenivasan. >> woodruff: and we will have a full examination of the potential trump-kim meeting, after the news summary. in the day's other news, a banner jobs report showed that employers hired more workers last month than any time since july of 2016. s. labor department reports a net gain of 313,000 jobs in february. the unemployment rate held at 4.1%, as thousands more people started lookr work, but wage growth slowed a bit from s pace, possibly easing inflation concerns. the jobs report went down well

on wall street. the dow jos industrial average gained 440 points to close at 25,335. the nasdaq rose 132 points, ande the s&p 500 47. for the week, the dow and the s&p gained more than 3%. the nasdaq rose 4%. president trump's newl announced tariffs on steel and aluminw sharp rebukes around the world today. ropean union demanded to be told if it will be exempt. and in beijing, the chinese commerce ministry slammed the move, and vowed to protect china's interests. >> ( translated ): we think it's perfect trade protectionism in the name of national security. it is an infringement to the rules of the world trade organization, and will definitely cause serious shocks to the normal order of international trade. druff: several republican senators also criticized the tariffs and called for hearings.

in syria, the red cross says that 13 aid trucks managed to get into rebel-held suburbs of damascus today, despite shelling and air strikes. eateur video showed them returning tern ghouta to finish a delivery, after an initial attempt earlier this week. the trucks carried in food for some 12,000 people. turkish presidt tayyip erdogan claiming a major advance against kurdish fighters in northernyria. turkey says the kurds are terrorists. erdogan claimed today that turkish troops have encircled afrin, and are closing in on the kurds. video showed militia fighters allied with the turks, driving inside the afrin district. in ankara, erdogan warned again, the offensive won't stop there >> ( translated ): right now,ri the target is try into the city is imminent. tomorrow, we will be in manbij. the next day, with god's help, we will succeed in clearing the east of euphrates from the terrorists all the way to iraqi border.

>> woodruff: if they do drive east, turkish forces could come into conflict with u.s. trps that are deployed in the area. back in this country, florida governor rick scott signed a major school safety bill in response to last month's mass shooting in parkland. the new law raises the legal age to purchase rifles, creates a program to arm some teachers, and includes rifles in a waiting period for buying guns. the republican governor said that it strikes a balance: know the debate on all of these issues will continue, and that's healthy in our democracy. people are passionate in their beliefs, and they should be. but disparage each other. we should work together to make our schools safe for our kids. >> woodruff: the national rifle association said tonight that is suing.

former trump campaign aide sam nunberg peared before a federal grand jury today in the special counsel's russia investigation. he had initially said that he would not testify. this morning, nuarrived at the federal courthouse in washington, with his lawyer. he stayed into the afternoon. and, an executive once reviled for hiking the price of an aids drug by 5,000% now faces seven years in prison. martin shkreli was sentenced today in new york, in an unrelated case. he had been found guilty of defrauding hedge fund investors. aikreli cried in court and that he was sorry. still to come on the newshour: changes at the u.s. forest service after claims of sexual misconduct. mark shields and kathleen parker weigh in on the proposed mee between kim jong-un and president trump. the renowned director who brought us "selma," and now, wrinkle in time." plus, much more.

>> woodruff: we return to our top story, president trump's surprise acceptance of the offer from north korea's leader, kim jong-un, to meet. we examine what's at stake with michael pillsbury. he has been advising the trump administration on korea. he is also a senior fellow at the hudson institute where he nedirects the center for c strategy. and, sung-yoon lee is an assistant professor of korean studies at tufts universy. and we welcome both of you to the program. thank you very much. michael pillsbury, to you firste should prest trump have agreed to this meeting? >> yes, absolutely. i think thissue, though, is whether there should be conditions attached that the north koreans have to fulfill before the trip happens. as you know, the president was very clear that the date and the place are yet to beegotiated. so his agreement to the meeting is subject to quite a few other edecisions being made. but, overall, this is really a

chance for him to become great president in foreign policy. i wouldn't rule out the nobel peace prize and all kinds of breakthroughs,e're in the very first phase of this today. >> woodruff: sung-yoon lee, should the president have done this? >> well, how to ascertain, how to understand kim jong un's sund dramatic outreach as of new years day, most likely he didn't wake up on new year's' days and have an epiphany andbe a nice guy. more than likely, kim jong un feels the mnch f meaningful sanctions enforcement built up over t past year, but more likely than that, this is all premed dated, preplanned, certainly noten unprecedd. kim is taking a page out of his daddy's playbook from the year 2000. >> true. hat year, kim jong un held the first summit with thkosouth an president who we found

paid kim jong un $500 million for the privilege of making the pilgrimage and after softening up south korea, he turned to the united states and send, unprecedented, a special envoy to the u.s. president. so the highest ranking military man next to kim visited washington in early october conveying the message from president kim his bos and president clinton was amenable and sent his secretary of state madeleine albright, and there she was three weeks later hosting kijong un. so don be prized if kim jong un sends his first sister who charmed people, melted hearts and minds when she showed up and flashed a few smiles in the south. >> woodruff: sods as if, michael pillsbury, professor

lee, that this could be a trap, the beginning of something that won't lead anywhere. >> he's stealing myines. was going to tell you the story of 2000 and the decision president clinton made that he would not acce the invitation and would send madeleine albright to advise him not who make the trip because the chance of real progress didn't exist. he's pointing this out as it affects the trump team as to what they want to do next, they want conditions before they go. >> woodruff: what should the conditions be? we heard the press secretary sarah sanders certain actions have to be taken if the meeting is to take place. e the trump white househo not spelled out the conditions yet. they've implied at what the south koreans brought from their meetings have to be implemented. so there's a certaint of uncertainty, which is very ow,mon in dihomesy, as you about exactly what north korea has to do. it's not an unconditional

promise that i'll meet you somewhere in the world and we'll have dinner. it's more than that, a both sides now are going to have to have a secret channel to discuss what exactly are these conditions. >> woodruff: well, we don't know what thos conditionsre, but, professor lee, if those conditions include, forxample, certainly no nuclear testing, no belligerent moves. is north korea prepared to do that? how far do you tnk north korea prepared to go to have this meeting take place? >> well, you see, north korea has conditioned the world to real lower the barhen it comes to engaging north korea. what kim conn vade to president trump through the south korean envoys is that now he is amenableo talking about denuclearization and that he will not conduct any missile or nuclear tests in the mean time. rsthose activities, of c we know are prohibited by more than ten u.n. security counci

resolutions. so the mere utterance of abllention fromit activities is no concession at all. rtunately, we have the cliffs notes, pre-conditis for suspending and terminating sanction which are codified in the sanctions legislation that was signed into law by president obama two years ago, sections 401, 402. they explicitly state the pre-conditioch are north korea has to make a meaningful step towas denuclearization, stop censoring the north korean people, release foreign detainees, abide by theo internl -- >> woodruff: but -- as recipient nation -- >> woodruff: if i may sphwrupt, -- interrupt just november t ws along becausee only have a few conditions. >> those are the conditions -- those aren't the conditions t trump white house is talking about. he's talking about something very different. >> woodruff: tto

something fundamental, does anybody in the white house believe kim jong un is actually prepared to dismantle his nuclear program? >> it depends onow you define umsmantle. the white house has very serious talent who have been through through the history of the mistakes, deception, errors. they have a vision, i understand it, which will be worked out. one of the issues is where will the meeting take place? should it be in switzerland where theorth korean leader can see where he went to school? >> woodr mf: does thter? if it's beijing. i happen to support beijing because i believe china is our partner in this. it's quite important the trump white house and chinese release two different versions what what happened in the phone call between president xi jinping and presidenestrump. the chview is they are irreplaceable and are part of this. i get the imession they would be happy to host the summit in beijing and help us with

implementation. the other idea is to go to the d.m.z. in the big long building there. so that's one of maybe five or six major decisions to be worked out. >> woodruff: a lot to be worked out. >> but president trump has started. at's the good news. >> woodruff: professor sung-yoon lee, do you believe the north is prepared to go ahead with denuclearization, to dismantle its nuclear program? >> in the history of denuclearization, only four nations who possessed nuclear weaps bargained them away and, in each of those instances, following a regime, chang a new leader. ,he former soviet republic kazakhstanened ukraine and belarus in the early '90s bargained them away and so did south africa when it ended its o presentation. >> no, south africa gave them .way, that's closer to the north korean mod >> due to sanctions and lot ofre intetional pressure. we have not seen the kind of

meaningful sanctions enforcement that obama level against iran. millions of dollars were levied against friendly nations, the biggest bank in france. nothing has been triedgainst china's banks. >> woodruff: it's difficult the example north korea sees is it doesn't necsarily pay t dismantle a nuclear program. much more to talk about here. are -- >> one sentence of good news. she and trump agreed today the sanctions remain in place up to the meeting. so there's no purchase this meeting. >> woodruff: china sanctions and other sanction remains in place? >> yes. >> woodruff: much more to talk about. we will be coming back to this a lot between now and the time this meeting may or may not take place. michael pillsbury here, professor sung-yoon lee. thank you very much.

>> woodrufs week, the chief of the u.s. forest service stepped down, foowing a newshour investigation into allegations of a culture of sexual misconduct and retaliation within that agency, as well as questionsf'bout the chies own behavior. william more on what this means for the service going forward. william, welcome. so tony took is his name, the chief of the forest service. he's outn what more you tell us about what's behind this? >> last fall tony tk was nominated to head the u.s. forest service. at that timeio a s official of the forest service said you need to be aere of s of teeny took's behavior. he had had a consensual extra marital affair with a subordinate when he worked in florida. cra special position for the woman, promoted her through

the ranks. according to the letter, when the affa was discovered by the young woman's supervisor, took was told sp communicating with her but apparently he did not. a rect quote, mr. took not only contacted the female employee, heold her not to say anything more about their sexual relationship or her career "wouldo down." that's a pretty clear allegation of sexual misconduct and intimidation on his part. we're spoke on the letter writer and this woman's supervisor and asked the forest service during the course of our reportinedg. they acknod an investigation was going on into his past, then our stories ran online and on the broadcast and this week tony tooke stepped down. >> woodruff: in addition, there were other new developments this week. >> brangham: we have a new interim rim chief at the forest service, vicky cistianson. she sent out an email to every forest service employee that said, in part, we've had to tas

some hard truths about allegations andetaliation in our agency. i know we are up to the task. oradditionally we got today that congress wants to start looking into this. congresswoman jackie spear of california and montana senator steve dane said want to hold hearings to look into this broader culture of sexul harassment within the forest service. >> woodruff: finally, wi yiam, you anour team have been hearing from within side the fore >> we've set up a tip line that appears on our web site and we've gotten dozs andozens and dozens of e-mails from people, former and current emplchees. many the complaints voiced in our stories, which was a culture of harassment and those who speak up about the harassment get battered down for it. we heard from some men who also said we suffer from harassment o well. we also heard frer people who said, i don't recognize what you reported. that's not the forest service we

experienced. i would like to readou an excerpt from a letter from one woman who has been in the forest servic25 years, workedn the midwest, still in the forest service, and her letter echoed a feelings of a lot of letters we heard. >> quote, your letter was harder to read and watching the footage s hard yet. sexual harassment is embedded in our culture. yogot the men in our office to sit up and listen. mostere shocked know women are viewed in that light. your article gave my co-workers and i do discuss the issues. i hope the women who spoke out realize they gave us the opportunity to make things better. >> woodruff: it's a shame it takes something like this to bring people to better wareness but, again, extraordinary reporting. thank you, william. >> brangham: you're welcome.

>> woodruff: and now, to the analysis of shields and parker. that's syn shields, and "washington post" columnist kathleen parker. david brooks is ay this week. welcome to both of you. happy friday, mark. two bold strokes by the president this week.s leart with the one we led the program with tonight. north korea surprised, i think,e a lot of peo by saying he will meet as long as north koree meetain conditions. was this the right move? >> we are find out if it was the right move, judy. it was a bold move. make no mistake about it. it disarmed his critics who accused him of being bellcose language, and was risking the brink war, almost, and especially gratuitously belittling the north korean leadership. >> woodruff: little rocket man. >> little rocket man.

then miraculously, north korea said i'm willing to negotiate and consider the possibility of removing my nuclear capability, which i think nobody above the i.q. of room temperature believes, but, at the same time, the problem with north korea in the past has not been their willingness to meet or negotiate gree, it's just that north korea has never kept its word. but the president certainly has taken a bold act and it's he brinkus back from of war and i think there's an audible sigh of relief. >> woodruff: smart move, kathleen? >> i just see it as very, very because,d it's risky on the one hand, he's giving kim jong un this legitimacy that he has for so long wanted. you know, when the president of the united states says something, it's always important, everybody listens, and when he does something, it's

always important. markets go up and down when he opens his mouth. he can cause wars with his words, and when he now says he's going th meet with norea, he is setting himself up for all sorts of problems, potential problems. but he's also, because he'sld dorump, has lots of wig room to pull out of it at thest inute if he decides the circumstances aren't right and we don't know exactly what those are. it's all been just odd, i think, to have had his messaging about what north korea's willing to do came from the southoreans, who then are the ones who announced it in front of the white house. i was taken aback byt. t i was, like, well, is he out, did have a dinn date so somebody else had to talk about it? and at what point is trump going to talk to the country about this very, very important and significant mo >> woodruff: in fact, mark, it was announced abruptly. the south korean official who

was at e white house was there -- he was going to meet with psident trump today. yesterday, the president, we are told, it's been reported that he heard he was ius the white went to see him. the president stuck his head into the press room a sai we're going to have an announcement that you ll want to pay attention to. so the w it was announced, the way it was handled raises some questions. >> it does raise questions, judy. but the questions have been raised and continue to be raised, as one republican explained to me, we have to understand every day is a new reality show, and there's no continuity to this presidency, and it's winning the day. it's changing e conversation. he's changed the conversation. ersation the co gary gone -- gary cohn hismi eco advisor was quitting because the trade policy. what was the conversation? stormy daniels, the porn actress with which the presiden

allegedly had -- people paid $130,000 to just before the electi to was going to go public. the disarraywh in thte house, you name it, republican civil war,f not civil war is strong, but at least republian strife over his trade policy, this knocked it all off the front pages. i did notice the south korean national security head mastered one to have the great secrs of trump was he began praising president trump for the meeting, it was all due to his leadership, his strong principled positions and, so, you know, this worked for donald trump. it got the other bad stories away for at least 24 hours. >> woodruff: kathleen, how much attention should we pay to the theatrics of this? >> i don't know we learn anything from the the yarkts because it's become sort of a

template of his. and you do realize you're watching a reality shoth e are other troubling aspects of this and that includes the fact we haveno representation in that part of the world, we have no ambassador to south korea, and ourci s representative to north korea has just left the building with mostly probably, i'm not sure, but i think because of a disagreement with trump about how he was -- about his belicosity. but this fellow was tending toward having these talks. then to add tot tha, we don't have any rl diplomatic involvement. secretary of state rex tillerson is speaking publicly about how we're nowhere close to talking to north korea and in the same news cycle the president is making this announcement or making invitation. >> reporter:. >> woodruff: while we're trying to figure it out, the other surprise throughout the week is his announcement on tariffs, on imported steand

aluminum. essentially we in the press were told there would be no announcement and the president made the announcement in a meeting, surprisedven, we're told, members of the white house staff, and as you mentioned his top economic advisor gary cohn stepped down, apparently mainlya e of this, because he didn't agree with the move. how do we read that? i should say the president said weing to have sweeping tariffs on imported steel and e learningut now we there are a number of exceptions. >> a number of exceptions. donald trump has been consistent in his inconsistency throughout his political career except for iticism of free. tra that has been continuous and relentless. he views trade as a zero tum, not that it's rising tide lifting all boats, anything of that sort, and that the uted states under the presence of beenadministrations ha rolled so in that sense, there are no

surprises. obviously, there are great surprises in how he did it, and heised politically. there was no preparation for republicans. there was no preparation for the press. there was no preparation in the sense of the stance of what the polls -- substance of what the policy was. >> woodruff: andt goes against republican orthodox. >> it does but he has been cons on that. i will say for republicans that cuts of $1.5 trilli medicare did not bother them, cuts in medicaid did not bother themcuts in socal services did not bother them, change of immigration policy has not bother them, repeal of any sense of balance, fiscal policy, balance ago budget did not bother them. they are bothered on -- this is it. i mean, this is whe, y know, quite frankly, judy, the corporate c.e.o.s are heard, o they a one mind and trump

is of the other mind and that's quite frankly where it stands. >> woodruff: what about that? ell, no, i agree with everything mark just said and it's just humorous, really that this is the one time the republicans are going to dig in their heels and say this is not a good idea and say, trump, o you're wro something. and by the way, what happened in the white house th the various departures and most recently cohn is donald trump is keeping one around who does not align themselves with his ideas anet ic, and that was the problem, cohn disagreed with the tariffs and he is rt of the last moderate voice that was in the white house. now that he's gone, you canct exveryone else to stay in line. and when they stop, they will alsor. disappea so, you know, as part of this chaotic white house, they've had an awfully difficult time tracting experienced go people and keeping them, and e is is the reason you see all thlatively young and inexperienced people in these key positions.

31-year-olds and 25-year-olds, you know, running the show, because they say, years -- yes s sir, whatever you say. i don't think trump can do ything to alienate his base. it's what happened with the -- happens with the rest that matters. >> i agree with cath line lien on one thing. two people not involv in thecine decision kim mattis and the joint chiefs. if you can make the decision not oelying on the judgment of these emarkable leaders, i can't believe it, but donald trump has done that. >> woodrinf: andly, only about a minute left, kathleen, but i want to bring it to something mark brought up earlier and that is the awkward situation now involving this woman, stephanie clifford.

she goes by the name stormy daniels, pornographic film star who is now involved in a lawsuit against the president because oe an aement to keep quiet about at she says was a relationship with the president and said his lawyer paid her $130,000. >> and made the arrangement using the campaign email, the w druff: the trump campaign. >> yes. now, this is more interesting than it appears because i think this is track ago lialttle bit g the lines of what happened with bill clinton. tichael koehn, trump's lawyer, is mned in the steele dossiewhich has been mentioned in the russian possible collusion, so it's very possible mueller could calloe. at some point as all good

prosecutors do, mueller tries to get everybody on record lyinou something and we could see this as president trump being put in a position as bill clinton was and woult be the irony of all things that despite everlthing ese that's happened, this could be something that really does bring him do a. >> woodruf we don't know what is going to happen but we certainly have no end of questions and reads to follow at the end of this week. kathleen parker, mark shields, thank you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: filmmaker ava duvernay has been breaking down walls in her industry for several years, with wily acclaimed films. now, as jeffrey brown tells us, she's taking on a different challenge: overseeing the adaptation of a much-beloved

book, a movie with a big budge and big expectations to boot. >>rown: it's a trip to a fifth dimension of space travel, through what's called a "tesseract," a kind of portal through the galaxies, better tiown to millions of readers as "a wrinkle i." madeleine l'engle's beloved 1962 science fiction novel for young readers now comes to new life as a big-budget disney film, as young meg murry and her companions search the universe for her missing scientist father, and do battle with dark forces of ev. >> i saw the girl. i saw the girl as hero, meg murry. >> brown: this week in new york, i spoke to director durnay. >> the girl who's the leader, even though she doesn't think she is or can be. and i loved that stoma and wanted t sure it was told, but also told from a perspective

ncluded images where all kinds of girls and boys could issibly see themselves int. it's theame story, just has different skin. >> brown: it's a deeply emotionastory of love and loss, but one in which scien ains are more important than brute force. >> brown: the film features oprah winfrey, mindy kaling and reese witherspoon as the three mysterious "astral travelers" who serve as guides to the young adventurers. at the heart of the story here, a mixed-race family, with 14-year-old storm reid playing meg. >> i'm conscious of the fact that there hasn't been a hero, a cinematic leading lady who's the heroine of her own story, that's been in the body of a black girl. and so to have the opportunity, with disney's blessing, to say, llt's expand this and make sure thatinds of kids can see themselves in the film. and i'm proud of that, simply because, really, something that ovndy kaling said to me: "i used

tothis genre, youth fantasy/sci-fi, but it never loved me back. i never saw myself in it." >> brown: is this something you though you took it on, or as you were thinking about what you were going to create? >> i don't have the privilege of not thinking about it, to be honest with yo it's not like a quirky thing that i think about, or it comes to mind. it's life. and so when i'm making a film, asserting myself in images ofwo people like men and people of color, in places where we've been long absent, isn'a kind of cool thing to do for the movie. asserting my presence in a film is not anything that require any thought. it just is, because it must be if i'm working on it. >> brown: on twitter, the 45-year-old duvernay calls herself "a girl from compton who got to make a disney movie." day, she's a top director, producer, screenwriter, as well as film marketer and distributor, actively working to

change the culture of hollywoo her 2012 film, "middle of nowhere," made her the first african american woman to win the best director prize at the e ndance film festival. shreceived wider fame and hrecognition in 2015 with historical drama, "selma," which tuceived an oscar nomination for best p. the next year she made "13th," a critically-acclaimed documentary ncout the intersection of race and massceration. and she's the creator of the own network television drama "queen sugar," set in louisiana on a family-owned sugar cane farm. as the show's executive producer, duvernay has made a point to hire all women directors. with "a wrinkle inime," duvernay becomes the first african american woman to lead

$100 million film production. is it surprising that that's still a thing? >> no. i mean, we live, and i work, in an industry where, unfortunately, it's no surprise that it's taken unti to make this so. so it doesn't surprise me. it's bittersweet. it's not anything that i applaud in myself or anything that i wear as a badge of honor. i think it's a real indictment. >> brown: because you look back at why it hasn't happened before? >> yeah, it's an indictment of an industry that's ignored mecredible black women, brown all kinds of women of color filmmakers for decades, centuries, over a century. de the fact that there's been a sion to put a light on me has nothing to do with me. a has to do with a trend in the indust the moment, and i happen to be standing here. p brown: she recently formed a partnersth the city of los angeles and others to fund 150 hollywood internships for women,

of color and those with low-incomes. and duvernay herself became a different kindenf role model attel made a barbie doll of her. at sunday's oscars, she appeared in a video calng for wider inclusion, and though she praised this year's event, she says lasting cnge in the industry is still to come. >> i think "change" is a big word. is there a spark, is there a leaning-in, an intert, an awareness that change should occur, yes but change involves systems, you know what i mean? true change involves a real sassembling of architecture and systems that we've not achieved. we've not even gotten close to. >> brown: so what does it take to change at this point, beyond the kind of work individuals like yourself are doing? >> there are so many layers. you know, filmmaker proficiency, what images are seen as valuable, who are the curators, who are the people who are deciding what the audiences

should see? cultivation of audience, selection of where theaters are around the country. there's a cinema segregation that happens in this country. i jus "t toinkle in time" to compton, a city that has no tvie theater. we hcreate a movie theater! we had to create a movie theater ," selma to show the film "selecause it's a black community with no movie theater. so then you get into, which imagesre valuable and which audiences are valuable. so it's a complex question. >> brown: do you see yourself as an artist who is always interested in this kin examining and remaking the world? >> art is simply entertainment that has meaning there are some things that are empty calories, and there are some things that are soul food. ani prefer soul food. >> brown: with "a wrinkle in time," duvernay says she has the chance to speak directly to young people. >> it's really about the times that i've been the most content in life or the times that i didn't focus on the darkness. didn't focus on where i was from

or what i didn't have. and it's just a shift in perception about the way we walk through our days. imagine if you had millions of people living in that heart space, it would be transformative for the culture. >> brown: a shift in perception, like that "wrinkle" in time that transports the characters in her new film to unimagined worlds. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown in new york. >> woodruff: duvernay's next e oject is a miniseries about ntral park five case, in which black men were wrongly convicted of a brutal rape. oo >>uff: and we will be back shortly with a "newshour es," on ice that bends. but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it is a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like ours on the air.

wi woodruf for those stations stayin us-- as cuba tries to open up its economy and lure tourists, environmentalists are working to prove that protecting the environment can also be profitable. here is a second lk at science correspondent miles o'brien's n,port from the island nat hiat originally aired last fall. >> reporter:breeding facility for endangered cuban crocodiles was a revolutionary idea, in more ways than one. cuban president fidel castro ordered it built only three months after he seized power. it may seem like an odd priority for a young communist revolutionary, but it offered an early inkling that castro would be an ardent lifelong environmentalist, able to dictate terms of preservation. etiam pérez fleitas is a researcher here.

>> ( translated ): having nearly 4,500 animals in captivity helps us to learn many things about me species that we can then use toage them in the wild. it reporter: in addition to the scientific missi has also become a big magnet for tourism, making it the picture rd vision of how to save the action's natural resources while still atng the sort of resources cubans can take to the bank. >> ( translated ): the tourism dollars it generates go back into fundi the park rangers, the overall protection of the wild areas that surrou and helping us gain a greater understanding of the species. >> reporter: the idea that the ecology and the economy don't have to be at odds drew researchers from cuba, europe and north america to this scientific conference in havana this summer. many of the exhibits and papers i saw as i walked through were trying to prove protection of the environment is a profitable

pursuit. american marine biologist david guggenheim was here giving a talk. he is the founder of ocean doctor, a d.-based nonprofit focused on protecting cuba's exquisite coral reefs. >> at this point, there's a great deal of fear about the impacts of tourism. but our message is that tourism has to be part of the solution, and the question is, how do you do that sustainably? >> reporter: he and many others ..re believe the answer lies in costa ri >> i have come to costa rica to a plore. >> reporter: .tion that set aside more than a quarter of its territory and made that wild beauty its appeal. it's where ecotourism was born, d still thrives. but as cuba opens up its economy and attempts to lureestern investment, there is a lot of pressure to emulate another model: ccun.

>>e think cancun is an exam of how not to do tourism sustainably in the caribbean. so, you actually had a collapse of the loc economy in cancun. and, in addition, the local reefs died as well. fortunately, so far, cuba hasn't succumbed to that. but the pressures on the economy are enormous, and tourism is the easiest place to get hard cash right now. >> reporter: guggenheim runs a project to protect an extraordinary reef off of cuba's isle of youth. it is brimming with elkhorn coral, which has vanished elsewhere in the caribbean. again, castro, the environmentalist, helped make this happen. after meeting jacques cousteau in the 1980s, el presidente became an avid diver, and eventually made 25% of cuban coastal waters wildlife preserves, with fishing mpletely banned. po when you do that, it's

ant also to consider alternatives for the communities that live adjacent to them. and the idea of tourism is to tave the community an economically sable future that also provides an economic incentive for them to protect their vironment. if you're not helping people solve problems in their communities, thenvironment isn't going to have a chance. >> reporter: cuba's enviable undersea environment inot all about dictatorial whim. it is also the silver liningo a very dark cloud, the economic devastation of the early '90s, just after the soviet union collapsed. the euphemism for these grim times? the special period. cubans were cut off from their supply of fertilizers and pesticides. that meant the country avoided chemical runoff from farming, a huge source of pollution and a big contributor to coral reef bleaching. the dearth of agricultural

inputs has created another unintended consequence, special in its own way. th ( translated ): iend, what they did was like a favor, because we rediscovered natural ways of farming. d that has preserved our natural environment. wo reporter: that's magdiel collaso garcia, a er at an organic farm-to-table restaurant that caters to tourists in they serve up a delicious lunch, everything but the fish grown ght here on the property. >> ( translated ): today, we are ren as pioneers, and a model of how to do thinht in the future, because when you apply techniques that come from nature, you also create the perftet environment to stimula ecotourism. >> reporter: it's a lesson these high school students from new jers gobbled up. their tour leader was stacie freeman, a professor from bethel university. >> i have been doing this for 11ears, nationally and internally with my students, and i travel a lot personall and you know, this is magic. this is unique.

>> you are going to put your hand inside a beehive. >> okay. >> reporter: but she has been around enough to know unique is not guaranteed, and ecotourism is not a panacea. ou sometimes, even with ecsm, you can do damage, you know? and so i'm hopeful that the people that are making those decisions are being careful and really thinking about the culture they have here, the heritage they have here. >> reporter: but, of course, human nature is often at odds with nature itself. plenty of evidence of that near the crocodile breeding facility. in the gift shop, stuffed crocs ile for sale, and, at the restaurant, crocode meat is on the menu. fast money is betterhan no money at all. will cubans save what's so rare here? or will they love it to death? in cuba, i'm miles o'brien for the pbs newshour.

>> woodruff: and now to our "newshour shares:" something that caught our eye that we thought you might beested in too. earlier this winter, henrik ed his friend mårten ajne skating on some very thin ice-- less than two inches thick, in fact. the result was a mini- documentary that captured the eerie, beautiful sounds of bending ice, and it went viral. we recently spoke with trygg by skype about th day and those unique noises. >> my name is henrik trygg, and i'm swedish outdoor photographer. i've been ice skating for 25 years. i think mårten has skated 35 years. the lake is just south of stockholm. it's just 2,000 meters long and 50 meters wide. the sound was really extraordinary that day because

the lake is so narrow and the ice was so thin, and then the quality was so good. it's just two-, 2.5-day-old ice. it's very pristine in the beginning. it's not too thick. it's alive. you feel it you hear it. so this is like the holy grail. it's like the ice is singing, you hear it when it's getting feet or the pitch,he pitch gets higher, the frequency gets higher. so, we just started recording. you hear the noise best when you skate ten to 20 meters away. so i just took it in directly

into my camera. it's a very high pitched tone. so it was fairly okay to record it with the built-in mic. so there's nothing fancy about it. i skate here because there's not nothing much more to do in the stockholm winter, and i really enjoy the adventure. i'm very curious. i want to see how far can we go, yoere can we go. can have adventure just outside your doorstep. you don't have to travel to the other side of the world. you can get your fix here. >> woodruff: how did he not fall through? you'll find more online, where we explain the math behind this skater thin-ice feat. that's on our website,

www.pbs.org/newshour. and robert costa is ing for "washington week," which airs later tonight. robert, what's on p? >> a moment of truth on trade for the president. we'll explain why the new on imported steel and aluminum may be about winning a political war, as well as a trade war. plus, after months of threats, that potential breakthrough with north korea. tonight on "washington week," >> woodruff: and we'll be watching. d that is the newshour f tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the wil foundation.a hewlett

for more than 50 years, itvancing ideas and supporting inions to promote a better lerld. at www.h.org. with the ongoing suppor of these institutions and friends of the nr. >> this program wamade possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. ur pbs contributions to station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh captioned by

elyse: we're the history detectives, and we're going to investigate some untold stories from america's past. this week, we lift off with an hour devoted to the pioneers of flht. is this piece of fabric a remnant from the firstfl transatlantic ight eight years before lindbergh? wow. tukufu: was this the instrument that c rted howard hughes' near-fatal plunge into beverly hills? wes: and an encore presentation: is this all that remains of the union army's most secret weapon? ♪elvis costello: watchin' the detectives ♪ y ♪ i get so an when the teardrops start ♪ ♪ but he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart ♪