

Stress: Portrait of a Killer
2008-11-18 · 56 min · ★ 6.4
Over the last three decades, science has been advancing our understanding of stress: how it impacts our bodies and how our social standing can make us more or less susceptible. From baboon troops on the plains of Africa, to neuroscience labs at Stanford University, scientists are revealing just how lethal stress can be. Research tells us that the impact of stress can be found deep within us, shrinking our brains, adding fat to our bellies, even unraveling our chromosomes. Understanding how stress works can help us figure out ways to combat it and how to live a life free of the tyranny of this contemporary plague. In Stress: Portrait of a Killer, scientific discoveries in the field and in the lab prove that stress is not just a state of mind, but something measurable and dangerous.
Trailers are previews, not full movies.
No authorized playback source configured. Use the legal watch options below.
Production details
- Directors
- John Heminway
- Production companies
- National Geographic
- Countries
- Unavailable
- Status
- Released
Top Cast
Robert SapolskyHimself
Michael MarmotHimself
Elissa EpelHerselfTitle information and images are supplied by TMDb. Explore our discovery guide for advice on comparing metadata and legal viewing options.
Where to watch
Availability provided by JustWatch via TMDb. Offers can change. Provider links are listed on TMDb; full playback requires a separately authorized source.
Availability not listed for this country.
Seasons & episodes
Recommendations

Drawing from never-before-seen footage that has been tucked away in the National Geographic archives, director Brett Morgen tells the story of Jane Goodall, a woman whose chimpanzee research revolutionized our understanding of the natural world.

Never-before-seen footage shows how our living in lockdown opened the door for nature to bounce back and thrive. Across the seas, skies, and lands, Earth found its rhythm when we came to a stop.

A doomed love triangle between intrepid French scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft, and their beloved volcanoes.

In the remote and forgotten wilderness of Lake Natron, in northern Tanzania, one of nature's last great mysteries unfolds: the birth, life and death of a million crimson-winged flamingos.

David Attenborough and scientist Johan Rockström examine Earth's biodiversity collapse and how this crisis can still be averted.

Veteran naturalist Sir David Attenborough tells the story of a remarkable group of gorillas, from his first encounter in the '70s to the present day.

Acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog travels to Antarctica, where he finds a desolate, beautiful landscape, largely untouched by human hands, and a group of truly unique people who risk their lives to study it. Centered at McMurdo Station, the United States' largest Antarctic research center, Herzog explores the minds of the scientists willing to abandon civilization and endure volatile conditions to learn more about the continent's wildlife and awe-inspiring natural wonders.

Embark on an epic journey of family, courage, and coming home in this feature-length documentary. Join Athena, the majestic matriarch, as she leads her elephant herd across an unforgiving African landscape filled with vibrant wildlife.

An unlikely team of activists and innovators hatches a bold mission to save endangered species.

Born to Be Wild observes various orphaned jungle animals and their day-to-day behavioural interactions with the individuals who rescue them and raise them to adulthood. The film unfurls in two separate geographic spheres. Half of it takes place in the rain forests of Borneo, where celebrated primatologist Dr. Birute Galdikas assists baby orangutans; the other half takes place on the arid savannahs of Kenya, where zoologist Dame Daphne Sheldrick works with baby elephant calves.

In the mountains of Sichuan, China, a researcher forms a bond with Qian Qian, a panda who is about to experience nature for the first time.

An astonishing journey revealing the awesome power of the natural world. Over the course of one single day, we track the sun from the highest mountains to the remotest islands to exotic jungles.

African Cats captures the real-life love, humor and determination of the majestic kings of the savanna. The story features Mara, an endearing lion cub who strives to grow up with her mother’s strength, spirit and wisdom; Sita, a fearless cheetah and single mother of five mischievous newborns; and Fang, a proud leader of the pride who must defend his family from a once banished lion.

Explore the evolution of Buzz Lightyear from toy to human in the making of Pixar’s Lightyear. Dive into the origin and cultural impact of everyone’s favorite Space Ranger, the art of designing a new “human Buzz,” and the challenges faced by the Lightyear crew along the way.

A special celebrating the origins and legacy of Star Wars' legendary bounty hunter, Boba Fett.

The life and career of an actor, artist, and icon. His own journey through his own camera.

An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.

An epic cinematic and musical collaboration between SHERPA filmmaker Jennifer Peedom and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, that explores humankind's fascination with high places.

Edie Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith, two aging, eccentric relatives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, are the sole inhabitants of a Long Island estate. The women reveal themselves to be misfits with outsized, engaging personalities. Much of the conversation is centered on their pasts, as mother and daughter now rarely leave home.

A nature documentary centered on a family of chimps living in the Ivory Coast and Ugandan rain forests. Through Oscar, a little chimpanzee, we discover learning about life in the heart of the African tropical forest and follow his first steps in this world with humor, emotion and anguish. Following a tragedy, he finds himself separated from his mother and left alone to face the hostility of the jungle. Until he is picked up by an older chimpanzee, who will take him under her protection.
Similar titles

Zia Mohyeddin, Pakistan's most venerated actor, devotes his final years to resurrecting interest in Urdu poetry and passing it on to a new generation of South Asians.

For the first time in history, a white man has been invited to become a Massai Warrior. The Massai of East Africa are one of the last tribes on earth to live as they did hundreds of years ago. Benjamin will live among the tribe, sleeping, hunting, and surviving in the bush. He will get to know their culture, their customs of dancing and playing, and learn how to conquer the dangers of the wilderness. Will he be able to become a true Massai warrior? To become a Massai is a great journey into the unknown.

The world's leading Egyptologists are on a quest to uncover the secrets of Howard Carter's history-making discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb on the 100th anniversary of its discovery. Now, as the treasures of Tut are being moved from the Cairo Museum to the brand new Grand Egyptian Museum at the foot of the pyramids, Zahi and others can examine them up close with the latest technology like never before. The result rewrites what we thought we knew about the Boy King.

Using the latest advances in camera technology, NGC penetrates the nocturnal hunting behaviors of the lion. Often asleep during the day, at night these iconic cats become active predators. With thermal imaging and infrared technology, see how experienced lions use the night to their advantage while stalking their prey

An exposé of comic proportions that only Chris Rock could pull off, GOOD HAIR visits beauty salons and hairstyling battles, scientific laboratories and Indian temples to explore the way hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks, sexual relationships, and self-esteem of the Black community.


A documentary about the rise and fall of the Cannon Film Group, the legendary independent film company helmed by Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.

“My Fair Lady” is a completely indie documentary about a house and the Lady who made it the sanctuary it was. We follow three people: my mom, my dad, and I, as we all recall our memories of her while trying to keep her alive in that now empty house. We each discuss topics we’ve never spoken about with each other. It is a story of heartache, pain, and perseverance after having lost.

Filmed in their home in Norway, this intimate documentary follows conversations between trans physician and queer-rights advocate Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad and their partner Elsa Almås. As Esben Esther lives with cancer, they reflect on queer aging, love and mortality, and what it means to face an uncertain future together.

A charismatic 22-year-old with multiple disabilities leaves his mother's home to share an apartment with the close-knit group of artists and musicians who are his caregivers.

Under pressure to continue a winning tradition in American tennis, Mardy Fish faced mental health challenges that changed his life on and off the court.
A documentary about people in Kenya who are imprisoned by the global flower industry. The dilemmas of the industry become painfully clear and a dark world of oppression, sexual abuse and terrible working conditions unfolds. There is only one conclusion possible: the smell of the imported rose is not sweet, but bitter.

Years of pent-up dissent turned into an igniting spark at Istanbul University's Beyazıt Campus. The moment that police barricade was torn down, with TİP students at the very forefront, was not only the breaching of a physical barrier but the shattering of the walls of fear built around the youth.
A woman asks "what's the meaning of democracy?" as she looks back over the politics of Kenya from the 1960s to the 2007 election.

When the world was on fire, they called Hans Blix. This is how the Swedish diplomat is introduced in ‘Blix Not Bombs’. And if there is one fire he is particularly associated with, it is the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Prior to the invasion, Blix led the delegation of UN officials to find out whether weapons of mass destruction were present in Iraq. And it is the invasion and its consequences that we get Blix’s formidably insightful analysis of in a thorough and honest conversation with director Greta Stocklassa. Few others understand the complexities of international politics on the world stage like Blix, and none can explain it with his intellectual elegance. But Stocklassa’s film is also a portrait of the man himself, now an elderly gentleman, writing his memoirs, walking with a cane and watching birds through the window of his apartment. His outlook and commitment is as urgent as ever, as Blix takes stock of the invasion of Iraq and the state of the world today.

A look at the Mau Mau Rebellion of the 1950s as experienced by filmmaker Donald McWilliams.

Jomo Kenyatta's death in 1978 brought to an end a political career that encompassed more than 50 years of African history. Kenyatta entered politics in the mid-1920s and then spent 17 years in exile in Europe. He returned to Kenya in 1946, and was elected president of the nationalist movement, the Kenya African Union. Arrested and imprisoned in 1952 for allegedly leading 'Mau Mau', he was released in 1961 and two years later became Kenya's first Prime Minister. In power, the man whom European settlers had once reviled as "the leader to darkness and death" was eulogized by them as a pillar of stability, while former allies challenged him by creating a left-leaning political opposition. Kenyatta weaves archival and contemporary images with interviews with friends and relatives, comrades and opponents, to create a biographical portrait of a key figure in 20th century politics, and a case study of what Frantz Fanon called the pitfalls of nationalism as a political force in Africa.

Through artistic manifestations, a group of LGBTQIA+ people performs public stagings that raise debates on issues of gender, social inequality and prejudice in the streets of downtown São Paulo. Messing with the popular imagination and providing debates, the artists explain their daily struggles to anyone who is interested in acquiring a new perspective on the most subtle layers of intolerance.

Meet the dirtiest cop in NYC history. Michael Dowd stole money and dealt drugs while patrolling the streets of '80s Brooklyn.

Five times, Earth has faced apocalyptic events that swept nearly all life from the face of the planet. What did these prehistoric creatures look like? What catastrophes caused their disappearance? And how did our distant ancestors survive and give rise to the world we know today?