GRRL HAUS CINEMA at Lakeside Film Festival

July 3 – 5,  2O26
​ Horror, Camp, Dramedies & Oddities
(1 hr 37 min)

Featuring Shorts: 
Rash - Lyssa Samuel
Repertoire of Death - Guadalupe Arellanes
Scallywags - Nenda Neururer, Olivia D'Lima
The Possession of Lottie Rose - Joshua Ballard, Robert Greene
Do You See Her? - Janet-Rose Nguyen
Play Fight! - Katrina Larner
Afters - Hannah Doyon
Attack of the Coat - Lola-Rose Maxwell
Big Red’s Adventure - Vanessa Castro
Dead Name - Gina Kamentsky
Meet The Friends - C. Denise

​Scallywags - Nenda Neururer, Olivia D'Lima
Stoner comedies have long been enjoyed, but perhaps less acknowledged as an art form, and we hope to have combined the two. A film of this genre is rarely centred around women, especially women of colour, and the team wanted to create something that their younger selves would have loved to have grown up seeing. On the surface, SCALLYWAGS is a stoner-comedy about two women who are coasting their way through life, with the help of drinks, drugs and partying, but the core of the story is female friendship; what we will compromise to keep people around, and how far we will go to avoid change. 

​Nenda Neururer - Nenda Neururer is an Austrian-born actor, writer, director, and musician based in London. She is best known for her roles in Sky’s The Rising (2022) and Belgravia: The Next Chapter (2024). Raised in the Austrian Alps, she trained at Rose Bruford College and works in TV, film, and theatre, often focusing on comedy-drama projects exploring identity, socio-political issues and unlikely friendships. Scallywags features original music from Nenda, who has won awards for her music videos, with her songs have over 1 million streams on Spotify.
Olivia D'Lima - Olivia D'Lima is a mixed South Asian British actor and writer from London. She is best known for her role in the London Film Festival's Closing Gala Film, 100 Nights of Hero, playing the sister of Charli xcx. Previous to her work in 100 Nights, Olivia has starred in TV projects across BBC, ITV & Netflix, with her performance on BAFTA winning show, Casualty, gaining her a nomination at the National Television Awards. As a writer and filmmaker, she has created award-winning and BIFA-Qualifying projects, and is currently in post-production on an absurd comedy about ageing, that she wrote, produced, and stars in.

ATTACK OF THE COAT - Lola-Rose Maxwell
A woman gets possessed by a coat.

Lola-Rose Maxwell is an actor, writer and director from Croydon. Unconventionally for a Brit, she started her career doing long-form improv and has grown to be one of the most sought-after improvisers in the UK. Lola-Rose is probably most well known for her viral sketches with Stevie Martin, which have amassed over 45 million views across social media. The duo now direct commercials under the guise NOT A ROBOT and continue to create original comedy content. In 2025, Lola-Rose directed her own short film Attack of the Coat and a zero budget micro short 'Ident'.
Acting wise she is probably best recognised for her role as Sarah in all three seasons of the critically acclaimed BBC/HBO comedy Starstruck but has also appeared on The Now Show, Doctors and upcoming feature film Mother's Pride. Writing wise Lola-Rose has contributed sketches to BBC Radio 4, two episodes of Channel 4’s Rude Tube, and multiple short films including Office Manager. She has also written a horror feature called SALT PIG about a lonely cannibal chef with daddy issues.

Rash - Lyssa Samuel
Rash started as a quarantine project and an opportunity to make the “perfect” portfolio piece while production was halted. Like many creatives at the time, I performed all production roles myself. I made use of automated sliders and POV rigs to incorporate movement while simultaneously filming and acting.

Drawing inspiration from Aronofsky, Cronenberg, and Satoshi Kon’s "Perfect Blue," Rash explores the self-destructive dangers of perfectionism. What started as an artistic challenge became a deeply personal journey, allowing me to process my own struggles with perfectionism.

I wanted to create a horror short where the killer and the final girl are one and the same. To me, this is a story about escaping the path of punishment and learning to trust self compassion as a driving force.

​Lyssa Samuel is an actor and filmmaker who loves creating at every stage of the filmmaking pipeline. She has self produced over a 100 comedic sketches, many of which were made during "Sketchtember"—a personal film challenge where she wrote, filmed, edited, and posted a new sketch everyday in September. As a Creative Producer at Ready Set, she directed the production of 30 social spots.

You can take a look at her work on her website or connect with her on Linkedin. When not behind or in front of the camera, you’ll likely find Lyssa strolling through her garden, in search of snacks.

Repertoire of Death - Guadalupe Arellanes
A lucid dream leads to a dance with Death. 

Photographed on 16mm, Repertoire of Death blends found sounds with rarely heard music from the personal archives of Yma Sumac "Queen of Exotica" in order to blur the boundaries between past/present, dead/alive, and dream/waking.

Guadalupe Arellanes is a Latina filmmaker based in Los Angeles, California. She is inspired by Mexican and Latin American magical realism, colors, and symbols.

Do You See Her? - Janet-Rose Nguyen
Katie questions her sanity as she's being stalked by a terrifying entity—one she can only see when her glasses are off.

Janet-Rose Nguyen is an award-winning writer/director. Her work explores the awful ways humans treat each other using comedy, horror, feminism, and queerness. She focuses on the Asian and Vietnamese diaspora. Recently she was a Top 10 finalist of the Screencraft Horror Competition for her feature film “Cedar Falls Bay”, was part of the Rising Voices Canada cohort presented by Hillman Grad/BIPOCTV & FILM/Indeed, and was selected for the 2024 Creators Market at the Tribeca Film Festival. She is an alumnus of the Reelworld Emerging 20 Program and the Canadian Film Centre’s CBC Actors Conservatory. Her films and screenplays have been featured all over North America with the National Screen Institute, the Hollywood International Short Film Festival, and the Regent Park Film Festival. She holds a BA in Creative Writing and a BFA in Screenwriting.

The Possession of Lottie Rose - Joshua Ballard, Robert Greene
Lottie Rose has been looking at dark-sided things on the internet and feels there might be an entity inside of her. Can the Preacher help? Can anyone help Lottie?

Afters - Hannah Doyon
Afters is a dark comedy that follows a twenty something, Chris ,on her journey home from a night out with "friends". At 2am on the streets of Bushwick ; reality becomes relative, poor decisions are the only decisions, friendships are tested, and everyone should have went home 4 hours ago. A night out that will make you question your life is needed every once in a while right?

Hannah is a first time director from Boston. Hannah has studied Acting at Pace University, has worked with UCB and Groundlings and loves working in the dark edges of comedy. Hannah is excited to make new work that pushes the envelope of mainstream media.

Meet The Friends — C. Denise

Krys lives by a simple, self-preserving code: charm, conquer, and never, ever get close. A master of the fleeting connection, she glides through a series of romantic encounters with emotional detachment as her shield. Her number one rule? No meeting the friends. Friends mean investment, context, and the terrifying specter of a real relationship.
Her carefully curated world is upended when she meets Felicia, a woman whose wit and beauty is matched only by her disarming sincerity. For the first time, Krys is genuinely captivated. Just as they are on the verge of intimacy, Felicia makes a gentle but firm request: before they take things further, she’d like Krys to meet her closest friends.
The proposition sends Krys into a tailspin. To agree is to dismantle the very walls that have kept her safe from heartbreak. It’s a direct violation of her entire emotional playbook. But to refuse is to lose Felicia, the first person who has made her consider wanting more.
"Meet The Friends" is a poignant and tense short film that follows Krys over one nerve-wracking evening as she stands at a crossroads. She must choose between the safety of her old ways or the terrifying, vulnerable leap of faith required to possibly win the heart of a woman who values connection over conquest.

C. Denise is a fearless creative force, a writer, director, and producer dedicated to bringing authentic, humanizing stories to the screen. Born and raised with the resilient spirit of Detroit, Michigan, she honed her craft earning a Bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
A natural storyteller, Denise began writing scripts in her early twenties, cultivating a unique gift for crafting narratives that resonate with real life for real people. Her work is characterized by its emotional honesty, finding the delicate balance between laughter and the uneasy truths that have the power to change perspectives and change lives.
While *Meet The Friends* marks her directorial debut, it is the culmination of a lifelong dream and a profound personal journey. A breast cancer survivor diagnosed in 2017 and in remission since 2018, she now lives with a renewed vigor and strength, working tirelessly to manifest her ambitions. She credits her relentless pursuit of these dreams to the unwavering support of her loving wife of 16 years, Angie, and their son, Austin.
Driven by a powerful mission to humanize marginalized communities, C.Denise founded Nolo’s Child Productions** as a tribute to her late mother, Carolyn “Nolo” Nolan, and the strong familial legacy she left behind. With a strong faith in the power of manifesting, C. Denise is not just a filmmaker; she is a visionary poised to create a lasting impact, with many more powerful stories waiting to be told.

Play Fight! — Katrina Cecilia Larner

Five little girls are jumping on the bed. One falls off and bumps her head. Mother carries her away and she doesn't come back. Four little girls keep jumping on the bed. One plays with fire and is burnt to a crisp. Three little girls are wondering who's next? They are bouncing off the walls and laughing at nothing. One discovers a truth deep within herself. Two little girls face off on the bed. Where did their friends go? What is there left to do?

Katrina Larner is a multimedia animator from California based in Providence, RI. she recently graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Film/Animation/Video.

Her work spans time-based mediums. Jumping from the moving image to her tattoo practice allows her to find a place to tell stories of in-between spaces and characters that are not quite whole. She enjoys exploring the intersection where design, form, iconography, and story meet using scrappy, low-tech processes. She is interested in characters that are compelling on their own: using them as actors going through motions or moving through spaces.
Girls are the most interesting subjects,
in her opinion.​

Dead Name — Gina Kamentsky

My dead name is trying to kill me.

Gina Kamentsky is an experimental animator and sound artist based in Providence Rhode Island. Her anxious and joyful short films blast out at twenty-four frames per second searing eyeballs and sending waves of buzz and crackle into the ether.
Over her three decade career she’s progressed through numerous forms including painting, drawing and collaging on film, Rotoscope, Musique concrète, sound collage, stop motion and Pixilation.
Kamentsky’s films have screened at festivals nationally and worldwide including Ottawa International Animation Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Annecy International Animated Film Festival and Animator Festival in Poznań Poland.

Big Red's Adventure — Vanessa Castro

Directed and animated by Vanessa Castro in collaboration with the band The Fascinating Chimera Project, Big Red’s Theme is a video game–inspired animated music video that follows a day in the life of Big Red, an orange tabby cat, from his own point of view. An ordinary day-in-the-life becomes an epic neighborhood quest filled with encounters, triumphs, and discoveries shared with other critters.

Animated over nine months entirely in Blender and After Effects, Big Red’s Theme invites viewers to reflect, play, and embark on their own neighborhood adventures, foregrounding nonhuman lives and the landscapes that sustain them.

Vanessa Castro is a New York–based, director, editor, and multidisciplinary artist working across digital art, music, and film. Her animations appear in the NEON documentary Seeking Mavis Beacon (2024), Adult Swim’s short New Game (2022), and Gilga’s short film Seek No Favor (2025). Her own projects have screened at Fantoche International Animation Film Festival, Ridgewood Off-Kilter Film Festival, Catskill Comedy Festival, Smhoakstock, and Boston Hassle Fest. She is currently finishing up her second music record, and developing her 3D animated short Player 1 (working title).​