>> tonight on pbs news weekend, we look at how millions of medicaid enrollees could be kicked out of the program now that special pandemic rules are ending. at of tomorrow night's academy awards, how representation on and off screen matters and where hollywood is still falling behind. >> year to year at the fortunes of women can swing from two in a race to zero in a race. you are not solidly achieving a pipeline of systemic equity. >> remembering an icon of american culture. the shopping mall through the lens of one photographer.

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station from viewers like you. thank you. >> good evening, i am john yang. california's deadly storm season seems to keep getting worse. after days of torrential rain, river levy failed in northern california overnight, triggering flooding and water rescues. elsewhere in the state the threat oflooding has thousands under evacuation orders. some roadways have washed away. the heavy rain and melting snow packs have forced officials to open the floodgates to reservoirs for the first time in years and more rain is on the way early next week. three years ago today the world health organization declared the covid-19 outbreak at pandemic. the who is still not ready to say the public health emergency is over even as people around the globe have resumed their normal lives.

more than one point one million people in the united states and nearly 7 million people worldwide have died from the virus. globally covid continues to kill nearly 1000 people a day. three american women are missing in mexico after crossing the border two weeks ago to sell clothes at a flea market. mexican authorities are investigating the disappearance of the two sisters from texas and their friends. there are over 112 1000 missing persons nationwide in mexico, more than 500 of them americans. indonesia's active volcano has erupted again today, sending clouds of hot ash into the sky d an avalanche of lava down the mountain slope. it forced the country to paul's tourism and mining activity. indonesia is on the pacific ring of fire and has more active volcanoes than any other country. u.s. skier michaela schifrin is now the most successful world cup skier ever male or female.

her win today in sweden was her 87 victory. surpassing the record that had stood for 34 years. every when, she will set a new record. still to come, what the lack of women in film both in front and behind the camera means for the industry. and remembering the once ubiquitous now disappearing shopping mall. >> this is pbs news weekend. >> during the pandemic, enrollment in medicaid the public insurance program for those with low incomes surged more than 28% and the uninsured rate reached an all-time low. that's largely because congress temporarily blocked states from kicking peop off medicaid even

if they were no longer eligible. but that ends starting at the end of this month. as many as 15 million of the 84 million current enrollees could eventually lose coverage. a correspondent for kaiser health news. what's called continuous coverage, not kicking people off or checking their eligibility, all ends march 31. is this all going to happen at once on april 1? people are just going to find out they are not covered? >> i think it's pretty unlikely that someone immediately on april 1 would get a letter saying you don't qualify and you are going to lose your benefits. states have a year to complete the whole process and part of it is becau the biden administration and congress frankly trying to make sure that we have enough time. they have enough time to go through everyone make sure that people aren't kicked off unnecessarily when they may still qualify.

the other thing is because we have unprecedented numbers of people on medicaid right now, it's going to take a lot of time. so they have about a year. every states timeline might be a little different. some are going to move faster than others. >> are some states already checking? >> some states have begun to notify people that their benefits could end soon. they have begun sending letters to people letting them know that starting in april, if they get a renewal notice and they don't furnish information needed for the state to confirm they could still qualify, they are at risk of losing their benefits. that will be starting soon, but it could be months from now before someone receives that notification. >> and in the meantime they'd be covered. >> yes. >> are we essentially going back to where we were before the pandemic where there is a medicaid gap? people who earn too much to qualify for medicaid but too

little to qualify for the subsidies under the affordable care act. >> yes, the states where medicaid was not expanded, eligibility was not broadened under the affordable care act, those states are disproportionately in the south and the midwest. they are going to have very restrictive eligibility levels once again. especially for adults without children. because of course medicaid covers so many people that how you qualify based on your income variesepending on whether you are a senior in a nursing home, whether you are a pregnant person who is currently receiving medicaid, whether you are a child. i think the risk, people who are trying to ensure that coverage isaintained for those who are eligible, certain people are at higher risk for losingheir benefits, especially adults without children and parents and their children. those are people who are especially vulnerable.

>> why those groups? >> children in particular a lot of the time their health insurance status will depend on their parents. if the parents aren't in short, they are notecessarily going to get their children insured. certain groups who are on medicaid are more liky to experience instability in their income, housing and jobs. those people don't always stay consistently on the program. those people may be qualified for medicaid at certain points in the year, but at other points they don't. the state needs to be able to reach those people to really ensure that their income is within the limits that medicaid prescribes. >> in a normal year they are constantly checking to see people's income levels to make sure they are still eligible. this sounds like a huge administrative task. talk about the fear that people who are qualified are going to

get dropped. >> it's been a long-standing problem even before the pandemic. it was a long-standing issue to get a hold of people on medicaid. this population, they are low income, they tend to be more transient with unstable housing and jobs. all of this was compounded during the pandemic. if you are trying to confirm that someone still qualifies, you have to be able to reach them. you are not necessarily going to be able to especially when people have had so much instability in their lives. a lot of medicaid verification work is still done through paperwork. it's hard paper, letters that are sent through the mail. it's not the most tech savvy area in terms of trying to get a hold of people. it's very common that mail won't be sent back to the state or it gets sent to the wrong address to begin with and i think that

is the risk in all of this because as we know, this is the largest medicaid renewal effort in the program's history. it's never been this big. >> politically it's very tough to take away something people are getting from the government. is this going to renew the debate or the push to expand medicaid nationwide even in the 11 states that didn't do it under the affordable care act? >> i think it will depend on the extent to which people lose their benefits. i think it's safe to say there are people who are receiving coverage right now who should not still be on that program because of their income or because they have moved out of state for example. but that being said, if you start seeing tremendous numbers of people losing their benefits, especially when they might still qualify, i think you could see a push again or that used as a reason toxpand eligibility

levels more broadly in the states that tend to be more restrictive. >> thank you very much. in some ways, tomorrow night's academy awards mark big advances in diversity. four of this year's acting nominees are of asian descent, the most ever. last year or more top movies started women of color than in the previous 16 years. but there are still notable gaps particularly for women behind the camera. none of the best director nominees is a woman and only one of the films up for best was directed by a woman and there were no nominations in any category for films with both black female leads and directors. the university of southern california found that in oscars 95 year history, only 17% of

nominees have been women and fewer than 2% have been women of color. only 9% of the directors of last year's top 100 earning films were women and less than 3% were women of color. jeff brown spoke with rebecca, who reports on diverty for the hollywood reporter. >> thanks for joining us. i want to start with the question of women behind the camera. directors, writers, other important roles. you have looked at this over time. general terms first when you look at this oscar season, what do you see? >> something that's played out in years past which is we are now getting films in the larger conversation that are considered awards caliber directed by women, but it's still very difficult for them to make it into the final five cut at the academy awards and so this

happened again, oscar's so male at least the directing category, even though people can now name specific women that would be nsidered snopes. >>his comes after a few years of successes for women, certainly in the director category. >> yes, absolutely. this is relative success. certainly the fact that we've had greta gerwig in the conversation, chloe chow, jane campion winning best directing oscars, its light years from how it was simply a cade ago. i think there is such a difference between a trend and sustainable change. as long as we are still at a precarious point where year-to-year the fortunes of women can swing from two in a race to zero in a race, you are not solidly achieving a pipeline

of systemic equity. we don't worry year-to-year if any man will make it into the race. that is literally question that nobody has asked. but that's still a question for women. will any women make it into the race this year as long as that question still exists and is a realistic one, we haven't really achieved systemic change yet. >> another thing you have long looked at is asian and asian american actors. it's a notably big year in that regard. how big a sign of change would this be? >> things began to change after parasite in 2019 won basically every oscar that it was nominated for, but it was not nominated in a single indidual acting category and that sort of emphasized a trend that we had seen in years past where films with predominantly asian castes like the last emperor or crouching tiger hidden dragon

would be very acclaimed across the board but received no recognition for its individual actors. this year's oscars is a record high with four asian at verse across the board being nominated. so that is very significant from the past, but it's significant because it was so minimal to nonexistent before. >> and criticism from people in hollywood ofolor continues. one notable critique, the director of the woman king. >> absolutely, it's notable because we are no longer in a media ecosystem where there aren't worthy performances, where there aren't awards caliber films about and made by black people and this year black women in particular, movies about black people particularly when they e about and by black women are sort of seen as specialty films. they are seen as films that are

not for a quote unquote general audience. they sometimes might be seen as homework or obligatory. movies about lack women are still painted with an asterisk and perhaps that affected its chances at the oscars. >> we all pay special attention at thimoment in oscar's season , but really the issue is about the pipeline that feeds into the movies that get made and even have a chance. >> absolutely. in the pipeline is something that there are people in the industry that have been working on it for a very long time. i think you are seeing those dividends begin to pay off in terms of form -- more women getting shots at studio movies, movies and different genres than just romantic comedies and small domestic films. awards season is always the very tail end of that pipeline. it's one thing to get your movie green lit, released and distributed and marketed, and

then to be recognized is that final piece. progress is slow, as was expected, but that pipeline is being built. >> with all the attention on the oscar films, this is a good chance to tell our audience about some films that you love that you wish more people got to see that didn't get the acclaim or the attenon. >> one film was so small that i understand why not a lot of people saw it, but after her son. it's a first feature from a female director about a young girl who goes on a vacation with her father. and sort of tries to learn a little bit more about what his interior or in retrospect is learning more about what his interior life was like. it's heavily implied that vacation is the last time she ever saw him. i also really liked till, the

aftermath of the lynching of emmett till. the way in which it's treated as really different from how i feel filmmakers have traditionally treated stories about brutality against black people. it's very conscientious in what it chooses to show and what it chooses not to show. and in so doing conveys a very powerful message about the significance of image, especially when it comes to how we depict racialized violence. i just thought it was a really instructive movie. not as exploative lee traumatic as some feared it would be. >> thank you very much. empty fountains, quiet corridors. shuttered storefronts. on the bustling centers of the

community's social scene, malls aren't the fixture of everyday life they once were. ideas stream public community in cleveland documents these once grand structures. >> this photo is of me. i was 18 months old. my mom had me at a chapel hill mall and she was approached by a photographer from -- who asked if her child would pose with some tiger cubs. this picture ran in the akron beacon journal in 1978. my name is jessica, i am a documentary photographer and storyteller. my dad is a bricklayer and one of his first jobs was working at rolling acres mall during the building of the mall.

quite literally from the first bricks of that place, my family has been involved. i went on my first date at that mall at the movie theater. i had my very first mall at the job -- very first job at the mall. i started photographing malls in 2016 i drove by rolling acres on the way to my mom's house. every season i would take different pictures because there were trees growing up in the parking lot, the leaves would change. you can look at the storefronts and know from the colors and patterns what store used to be there. there might be a label scar, all of the plants were dead, the fountain was empty, it smelled old and moldy and musty, but it was still a mall. with malls now, they have taken all the seating out. you don't see fountains, even

plants are hard to come by and it's this big white box that you go in, you shop and you leave. when i visit malls, i am very immersed in the actual experience of it. i shop while i'm there if i can. we will get a snack, go sit by the fountain if they have one. i think that lends itself to photos that are a little more atmospheric and i feel like my photos are little more intimate. i have always had a camera. my parents put one in my hands very young. i will see or experience something and if it's impactful enough, i want to know everything about it. i'm looking at it from more of wanting to document these places while they are still around and engaging with people and just enjoying the nostalgia. i'm also not a person who is like and i think malls should still exist. in a lot of ways the time of the

mall has passed. i do think it's important for photos andhe folklore of a mall to still exist. there is definitely an interest and i have noticed locally, if i post pictures, local people are just like, i haven't thought about that place in so long. it sparks all of these memories and discussions that reinforce what i'm doing. if i can be the person who helps spark these memories and conversations, then that's fantastic. i love it. >> online right now ahead of tomorrow night's academy awards, see our coverage of all things hollywood and film including interviews with nominees. all that and more on pbs.org/newshour.

that is pbs news weekend for this saturday. i'm john yang. for joining us.olleagues, thanks see you tomorrow. >> major funding for pbs news weekend has been provided by. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no contract wireless plans designed to help people do more of at they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help you find a plan that fits you. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captiong institute,

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