[5] The documentary examines how boredom negatively impacts health, driving people either to morbidity or high risk behaviours, possibly playing a part in the 2011 England riots,[6] and in addiction,[7] among other social problems.

Nerenberg participates in a "boring" experiment conducted by researchers at the University of Waterloo, where he is made to watch a video of two men hanging laundry while his heart rate and cortisol levels are monitored.

[8] He finds himself bored within an extremely short time, and then anxious, nervous and uncomfortable, demonstrating that during boredom, cortisol hormone is released, an activity drug which creates stress.

In a podcast interview with Doug Gordon, Albert Nerenberg states that he frequently makes films about "the obvious", things hiding in plain sight.

[10] Boredom had its world premiere at the Festival du nouveau cinéma in Montréal on 14 October 2012,[3] where it was in competition with other films in the Canadian Focus section.

[13] It went on to be screened at the Visions du Réel and DOXA Documentary Film Festivals in Nyon, Switzerland[14] and Vancouver[15] at the Vancity Theatre, in April and May 2013.

[18][10] There is also a three-minute featurette on the stages of boredom and a four-minute feature on a proposed artificial mountain in an area of the Netherlands to add interest to the region's otherwise flat landscape.

[3] Writer and critic Anne Brodie calls the documentary "vastly entertaining", with the caveat that the film is not a "real" study as much as a Reefer Madness kind of exercise: "Some academics are interviewed and medical facts are tossed around, which is all good, but at its heart this is just fun to watch.