How We Created 'Poreless,' a Narrative on Beauty, Authenticity, and the 'Diversity Slot'

      “Poreless” tells the story of a fabulous queer Muslim beauty entrepreneur who must navigate a product pitch contest reminiscent of Shark Tank after experiencing an unexpected allergic reaction. You can view it above via Switchboard Magazine. Below, director Harris Doran, who co-wrote the short with Fawzia Mirza, shares insights into the film's production.

      "Bad news. Amazon informed me that the fuchsia chairs would arrive tomorrow, but now they won’t be delivered until two days after we film that scene.” These were the words from my production designer Rashi Jain, breaking the news about my vision for the opening scene with fuchsia chairs set against a white background. Rashi and I explored the internet together late into the night, trying to locate pink chairs in NYC, only to find they were nearly impossible to find. Ultimately, she found a way to incorporate pink into the throw pillows and then made the white curtains blue.

      I'm still unsure how she consistently pulled off such magic, but that creativity defined our entire shoot — starting with a vision and trusting your collaborators to own their contributions to it.

      Let’s rewind a bit.

      It all began with Akbar Hamid, who had achieved success in public relations by sharing others’ stories, all while secretly desiring to act and tell his own. He shared this vision with Fawzia Mirza, a successful filmmaker and a long-time friend of mine. Fawzia knew I had experience coaching actors and suggested that Akbar and I collaborate.

      When I first met Akbar, I was taken by his fashionable appearance — handsome, impeccably dressed, and full of energy. I had him read some lines, and he leapt off the page with his natural comedic timing. I remarked, “you could be the Pakistani Dan Levy,” to which he responded with a joyful smile.

      Due to Akbar's unique and vibrant personality, I wanted to prevent him from overthinking things with formal acting lessons, so I encouraged him — “You’re ready. Just start. You should make a short film.”

      He and Fawzia planned to create a short film together, but Akbar kept proposing very serious dramas. Fawzia encouraged him, saying, “you’re funny. Focus on the humor.” Eventually, Akbar suggested an idea that resonated with something I had already written, leading me to say, “I'll write something else for you both to work on.”

      This sparked brainstorming sessions between Fawzia and me. Given my success with my short film “F^¢K ‘€M R!GHT B@¢K” at Sundance, which was inspired by the life of the lead actor DDm, I thought a similar approach might work well here.

      Sharing a similar silly sense of humor, we began discussing themes related to beauty, fashion, and identity. Fawzia suggested a concept involving identical gay Muslim triplets, and as a fan of classic farce, I proposed that one of them hide something — leading to the development of the allergic rash storyline.

      The experience was enjoyable, but I felt it needed a deeper theme to support the comedy, so I brought up the feeling of scarcity that people of color sometimes face regarding achieving a “diversity slot.”

      Akbar, a first-time producer, got to work — and if you want to see someone set a goal and achieve it, spend five minutes with him. He leveraged his entire network to bring the film to fruition, raising enough funds to greenlight it rapidly. We were set to shoot just three months after writing.

      Fawzia and I agreed that whoever was available would direct, and as she was busy promoting her wonderful feature, Queen of My Dreams, I stepped in to direct.

      We welcomed the amazing Rabia Sultana as a producer.

      To capture the specific comedic tone, we needed visuals that supported it. We pooled our resources to recruit the best talent possible. Rabia brought Rashi on board, along with the exceptional Bill Kirstein, who had just finished working as the cinematographer for the Mean Girls musical film. He utilized camera movements to elevate the film’s tone. The stunning fashion was provided by Allison Calhoun, while Andrew Sotomayor created chic makeup looks.

      We needed a cast that could execute the comedic style: Diane Guerrero was secured through Akbar, Parvesh Cheena through Fawzia, as well as Allyce Beasley, Lucy Owen, and Sophie von Haselberg through me. Henry Russell Bergstein, our casting director, brought in Gia Crovatin, and Sureni Weerasekera was the only one we auditioned, impressing us so much that Fawzia and I offered her the role immediately.

      One of the challenges was depicting the “glow up” where the “Poreless” product is effective — so we arranged a meeting with Bill, Andrew, and Jeff Kyle, our colorist and VFX artist.

      We brainstormed various ideas, such