The Unmistakable Creative Podcast Justin Connor: The Lungs Hold Grief and Why Workaholism Is Both Saving Grace and Achilles Heel for Filmmakers
Feb 24, 2026
Justin Connor, filmmaker and musician behind The Golden Age, blends filmmaking, music and memoir. He talks about how his parents' unrealized dreams and his father's alcoholism shaped workaholism. He describes cigarettes as grief held in the lungs, why psychedelics were exploratory not addictive, and how making the film felt like purging a wound.
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Use Forgiveness And Therapy To Break Cycles
- Forgiveness enabled healing; Justin recommends confronting the past, doing therapy, and nurturing your younger self to move forward.
- After making the film he used honest confrontation with his father and introspection to break the cycle of abuse.
Trauma Crosses Economic Lines
- Abuse and trauma happen across economic classes, not only low-income households.
- Justin's family had privilege and a beach house, yet long legal battles and his father's alcoholism still created a battleground childhood.
Childhood Court Battles Broke Trust In Love
- Justin describes becoming a 'parent' alongside his siblings during his parents' divorce and court battles, which fractured trust in relationships.
- The long duration of shame and trauma made him feel unworthy of love and interfered with intimacy for years.
