The watch

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

I watched two noteworthy things over the weekend. The first was Light in the Water, the Emmy-nominated documentary feature directed by Reno native Lis Bartlett, about West Hollywood Aquatics, the first openly gay masters swim team. It screened at the Nevada Museum of Art as part of the Outwest Film Festival, an event produced by the NMA and Our Center, the local LGBT community center. Lis is an old friend, and I interviewed her about the project a few weeks ago (“Filmmaker,” 15 Minutes, April 25).

But this was my first time seeing the film. It’s a really beautiful movie—a stirring, funny, sad, emotional story, and an impressive feat of editing. The film incorporates archival footage, dozens of interviews, and some nice action shots of great swimmers doing their things. The house was packed at the local screening, which was nice to see. Seek it out.

The second thing was, of course, the series finale of Game of Thrones. One of the most watched episodes of TV ever, and apparently one of the most controversial. I thought it was a poignant, bittersweet ending to an epic tale—but many of the reactions I’ve seen—from social media mavens whose thumbs were twitching before the credits rolled and even from professional commentators—have been negative. Not sure what they were expecting or what they wanted. Maybe they would have liked a scene set 10 years later with all the heroes taking their kids to school?

Quick reminder: Don’t forget to vote! Just two weeks left of the first round of the Best of Northern Nevada readers’ poll. Go to bestofnorthernnevada.com and get cracking.